Angels 20
by Dragon'z Wrath
Summary: Lieutenant Giovani Santori, callsign Night Wing, has been assigned to a new carrier battle group led by Admiral Luna. As the group heads out to sea, global tensions arise that grant Luna the chance to use her new fleet to its full potential. But as things start to escalate, the fragile peace that exists between certain sects in the crew is strained. Humanized, little cloppy maybe.
1. Chapter 1

Angels 20

Chapter 1

Night time. Usually one of the most peaceful times of the day. Me? I hate it. Not the peaceful part mind you, I just don't like the dark. You might ask, "Well why don't you like the dark?" My answer to you would be that flying in the dark makes it that much harder to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Oh, where are my manners? I am Lieutenant Giovani Santori, United States Navy. You can call me by my callsign, Night Wing; or Ni if you prefer. I am currently finishing up my final test for qualifying to be an F/A-8 Super Hornet aviator. The test being to land said Hornet onto the deck of an aircraft carrier at night.

"USS Seahawk, this is Tango Hotel 1-1. Am I cleared to land?" I asked into the headset of my helmet.

"Tango Hotel 1-1, this is Seahawk. You are clear for landing. Call the ball," replied the Seahawk's deck officer.

"Roger Seahawk, I got the ball." I made a slight banking turn to position myself for landing and lined myself up with the carrier.

"You've got this Ni," said my flight instructor in the back seat. "Just ease it in, and remember; this ain't no Tomcat." I smirked to myself at his words. I was originally an F-14 Tomcat Aviator but since they were going to be phased out soon and replaced with the Super Hornets I decided that I should probably learn to fly the new toys.

"You're listing left Tango Hotel, adjust course," said the deck officer, jolting me out of my thoughts.

"Copy that," I adjusted my approach and tapped the airbrakes. As I got closer I eased up on my throttle and dropped my tail hook to catch the guide wires on the deck of the carrier to make sure I didn't fall off the end of the boat.

"Contact in 500 feet… 300… 100… contact!" I felt the impact of the landing as the deck officer announced it. My plane slowed down almost instantly and came to a stop a comfortable 80 feet from the edge.

"Feet dry," I said as we were towed to the side elevator, relieved to have finished training.

"A perfect landing Ni, makes me wonder why you hate night ops so much," said my flight instructor as he unbuckled himself. I smirked as I started shutting down the aircraft.

"Just don't like the dark sir," I replied. He laughed and patted my helmet.

Meanwhile, up on the bridge of the Seahawk there were an extra set of eyes that were evaluating my performance. "He is a good flyer ma'am, I think he would be an excellent choice," said the captain of the Seahawk.

"Good flyer? Just good? Captain, he is an excellent aviator; and he is the perfect choice."

"My apologies Luna, I agree with you 100%," said the captain. Luna fixed a look of indifference upon the captain.

"Captain may I remind you that you are in the Navy?"

"I know that Luna, I'm on a boat," chuckled the captain.

"You will address me by my proper rank of admiral, CAPTAIN. Or I will have you down to ensign before I walk off the bridge." The captain immediately stopped smiling and stood at attention.

"Yes ma'am," he said as Luna turned away.

"Permission to leave the bridge captain?" she asked as she turned and batted her lashes innocently. The corners of the captain's mouth twitched in anger but none showed on his face.

"Granted…"

About an hour later I sat in the locker room changing out of my flight gear when suddenly someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see a couple other aviators standing behind me. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Heard you passed your Hornet tests, congrats Ni," said one of my former squadron mates. I smiled and stuck my hand out to shake.

"Thanks Mic." Mic looked at my hand as if it disgusted him.

"How could you abandon your Tomcat like that Ni? You're one of, if not the best Tomcat flyer ever." I shook my head and sighed heavily.

"Mic, you know that the Tomcats are being phased out. I just want to keep flying is all."

"Well let's see how you can fly with a broken nose," spat Mic as he threw a right hook to my face. I ducked under and he hit the locker instead of me, causing him to yelp in pain. His buddies were quick to engage me by grabbing my shirt. I slipped out from my shirt and while they were reacting I slammed their heads against each other. I turned and was quickly punched in the face by Mic who was holding his right hand towards his stomach. As I recovered from the hit I saw that he was wincing and clenching and unclenching his left hand. Thank God for my dense bone structure. I went to slap his face but while he easily blocked me I reached out and grabbed his right hand. As soon as I gripped it he let out a howl and screwed his face up in pain. I immediately could tell that he had broken his knuckles against the locker so I simply gave a light squeeze and he fell to his knees while groaning in pain.

"Admiral on deck!" shouted a voice behind me and I immediately snapped to attention while Mic and his buddies were on the floor making incomprehensible noises of pain. I stood there looking directly ahead as I heard footsteps move from behind me to my left. I saw the admiral inspect the three groaning men on the floor and then look towards me with what I could only guess was a look of amusement, annoyance, and approval all at the same time. She smirked slightly as she looked me over. "Lieutenant, why are these men on the receiving end of your blows?" She asked, almost as if she knew the answer.

"Ma'am, they assaulted me ma'am," I replied honestly. She nodded her head and looked back down at Mic and his friends.

"Don't worry lieutenant I saw what happened, they will be facing captain's mast as soon as they leave here." She looked back up at me and smiled. "Get your gear stowed Night Wing, you are being assigned to my fleet." I stiffened at her words and let a slight smile play on my lips.

"Ma'am, which fleet specifically ma'am?" her eyes seemed to wander over my chiseled chest in a way that made me slightly uncomfortable.

"It's a brand new fleet lieutenant, one that I'm sure you will get to know and love." Her eyes rested on mine and she moved closer to me. "Be ready by 0700 tomorrow. An Osprey will be waiting for you on deck to take you to the naval base in Jacksonville. I'll brief you when we are airborne tomorrow."

"Ma'am, yes ma'am," I said as a smile broke across my face.

"Dismissed lieutenant."

"Aye ma'am."

The next day I walked across the deck towards the only Osprey aboard, how I didn't notice it before I will never know. Ospreys are a very rare breed of aircraft; part airplane, part helicopter, these things garner attention wherever they go. On the side I noticed there were three pink butterflies painted on the fuselage. I puzzled at this until I saw Admiral Luna wave towards me from the back hatch flanked by four marines.

"Good morning lieutenant, ready to go?" she hollered over the Osprey's engines starting up. I stopped in front of her and saluted.

"Ready and raring!" I replied shouting. She motioned me aboard after saluting back and all six of us got in. As soon as were in the bay of the Osprey one of the marines hit the hatch control button and the ramp closed. I immediately noticed that the interior must be somewhat soundproofed because the sound of the rotors had dropped significantly. Once we were strapped in a gentle voice came over a loudspeaker.

"All settled back there?"

"Yes we are Fluttershy, take us out of here," answered Luna.

"Copy that admiral," replied Fluttershy in a quiet tone. I felt the Osprey lift off the deck and change course to what I guessed was Florida. Luna took out a Combat Information Tablet, or CIT, and typed in a code. After she did, a table raised up from the floor between myself and her. She placed her hand on it and a scanner appeared under it. The table lit up suddenly after it finished scanning her and holographic images began to manifest in the air above the table. I sucked in a breath as all this was happening while Luna had a smile on her face. The motes of light began to take on shapes and text in the air before me. Some coalesced into the slightly familiar shapes of a submarine and a frigate, others shaped into a destroyer; data and specifications spelled out in text next to their respective ships. As my eyes scanned the data and images I noticed that they seemed different than any ship I had seen before. I opened my mouth to speak but Luna cut me off.

"Notice anything out of place Lieutenant?" she asked while zooming in on the submarine. The submarine in question was slightly longer than the average nuclear sub and had a wider frontal profile.

"It seems… bigger," I answered. She smiled and "picked up" the sub in her hand and rotated it.

"This is the first in what I hope will be a long line of Eclipse-class naval warships." She beamed with pride at the sub. "This nuclear submarine is 20% longer and 40% wider than any before its time. It can carry a payload of 20 ship-to-ship torpedoes, 10 long range cruise missiles for ground support, and four Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles tipped with nuclear warheads." I whistled and shook my head at the firepower. "And that's just the submarine," she smirked. She threw the sub over her head and it disappeared.

A destroyer manifested on the table and she spun it around playfully. "The Eclipse-class destroyer is 30% longer and has a five inch Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, or MAC as I like to call it, which has a firing rate of two rounds a second." She seemed to look lovingly at the MAC gun and then shook her head to clear it. "It carries 40 long range cruise missiles, 10 20mm anti-air/anti-missile Vulcan point defense mini-cannons, and two anti-air missile pods on top. Plus a standard issue helipad." I nodded, knowing full well how deadly destroyers are against air targets. Luna then flicked the destroyer and it dissipated into a thousand particles of light.

The next ship to appear was a battleship, but it was unlike any battleship I had ever seen in my life. "That thing looks like someone shoved a steroid injector so far up its ass that it…" I stopped when I noticed that Luna as well as the marines were looking at me like I had grown a second head. Luna failed at keeping a snicker in and all of them burst out laughing. I joined in after a second of my own awkwardness. "I'm so sorry admiral, I did not mean to say that out loud." Luna guffawed for a second and then wiped a tear away from her eye.

"It's alright lieutenant," she managed to say as she slowly calmed down. "I actually needed a good laugh." The marines kept laughing for a bit as placed the projected battleship on her lap and stroked it as if it was her pet cat. "This is my favorite out of the bunch," said Luna as she continued to stroke it. "30% larger in every way, 10 point defense vulcans, four five inch MAC turrets, two anti-air missile pods, four cruise missile and torpedo tubes; and the cherry on top? All four of the main batteries are dual-barreled 20 inch MAC cannons that can fire four rounds a second." She cradled the ship in her arms and I could have sworn she cooed at the damn thing. "It is my flagship for the fleet."

"Makes me almost wish I joined the navy," said one of the marines and the rest chuckled.

"ma'am? Not that this isn't impressive, but what about the carrier? I'm assuming I'll be serving on one correct?" I asked as she started rocking back and forth in an attempt at what I could only guess as trying to get the battleship to sleep. She nodded her head at me and continued to rock. "Will it be the USS Nimitz ma'am?" She spun her head towards me and locked eyes with mine.

"You really think I'll allow such a piece of junk in my fleet?" she asked incredulously.

"It was only put in service a few years ago Ma'am, it's the most advanced we've got," I said trying to reason with her. She held up a finger to silence me.

"Now now lieutenant, you apparently don't know me very well." She lifted the battleship up to her face and gave it a kiss. It disappeared and she placed her hand on the table and lifted an aircraft carrier out from it. I quickly noticed that this carrier was like no other carrier before it. "I'll let you take a look," said Luna as she gently pushed light model towards me. I tenderly "grasped" the carrier as it neared me and I twisted it around to get a full appreciation of it.

"It looks gigantic…" I muttered as I examined it.

"That's because its 40% bigger than any aircraft carrier before it," explained Luna in a matter-of-fact tone. "As you can see, it has two landing runways along with the standard dual catapult launchers." I gingerly turned it in my hands and took note of everything I saw. The two runways that Luna had mentioned ran parallel to each other on either side of the ship with the bridge tower sitting in the middle of the ship closer to the backside of the boat. I noticed that a section of the central tower extended slightly towards the empty space between the runways, and what looked like a massive hangar door at the end of it. I pointed at it questioningly and Luna seemed to know what I was asking. "That is the main aircraft elevator, I didn't like how on normal carriers the elevators were completely exposed to attack; so I fixed it." I nodded and kept looking around the hologram. "It's big enough to fit a C-130 cargo plane in it and when we are in a rush we can divert power to the platform to get it up or down in about a minute." I whistled, knowing that cycling aircraft on those things took forever. "As for weapons it is probably the lightest armed ship in my fleet. It only sports eight point-defense Vulcan cannons, and four five inch MAC guns on the port and starboard sides."

"That's understandable, carriers aren't even supposed to be able to fight," I said as I let go of the holo-image. It leveled itself and I lightly tapped it so it would spin. I felt the Osprey tilt to the side slightly as it turned.

"Slight course correction admiral, if that's alright with you…" said Fluttershy over the intercom. Luna pressed a spot on her CIT.

"No problem Fluttershy, I trust your judgment."

"Copy admiral," she answered in a voice that suggested that she was blushing. I smiled.

"She seems nice,"' I said towards Luna, I didn't notice that she was still pressing the "speak" button on her CIT as we spoke.

"I picked her to be my personal pilot. She flies me places, and does special jobs for me and only me. Wanna know why I picked her?"

"I'm guessing it had something to do with her personality?" I smiled as I spoke; finally noticing that Luna was keeping the line open.

"That was part of it yes but it had more to do with her skill with an Osprey, or any type of helicopter for that matter," Luna answered. "She has a gentleness with them that is very refreshing when I fly with her."

"Well I can definitely see that. It's as if she's part of it," I said honestly. "I do the same thing when I'm flying jets." Luna nodded.

"and you are one of the best pilots aviators I have ever seen, that makes Fluttershy the best chopper pilot I have ever had the privilege of having," said Luna as she winked at me. A small squeak was heard over the intercom and Luna giggled as she shut the line.

"I can tell I'm going to enjoy serving under you ma'am," I said while chuckling. She logged off the smart table and slid it over to the waiting marines so they could apparently play air hockey. About an hour later a question popped into my head that I should probably have asked earlier. "Admiral?" I asked. She looked up at me and quirked an eyebrow. "When exactly will this fleet be built?" She giggled and placed her CIT in her lap.

"Oh lieutenant, why don't you look out the window?" My eyes opened wide and I got up. As I got to the side gun port I knocked on the door leading to the cockpit.

"Yes?" came Fluttershy's voice through the door.

"Permission to open the port side gun port?"

"Granted." I opened the hatch and immediately the wind started blowing into the interior of the ship. I leaned my head out and squinted towards what looked to be a naval base. As we got closer I saw the outlines of various ships in port. The ones that stuck out to me though were the Eclipse-class battleship and carrier tied to the pier. How did I know they were Eclipse-class? Not only were they freaking huge next to the other ships but they also had dark blue war stripes painted across the sides of their hulls. Once we were about four minutes from the ships I started to make out the names written on the hulls.

"The USS Cloudsdale and the USS Solar Eclipse?" I said to myself.

"Yes, welcome to your new home for the next year Lieutenant Night Wing," said Luna appearing over my shoulder.

"Please Admiral, call me Ni." She smiled and patted my shoulder.

"Alright lieutenant Ni. Let's get onboard."

**Author's note: **well i hope you enjoyed that little intro. if anypony reads this that is actually from the military branches represented in the story and you notice I did something wrong in terms of procedure or rank please tell me and i will do my best to correct it. also if you are joining in from my previous story, A Stranger's Love, i welcome you back into my clutches. lol hope you enjoy the story, reviews are welcome and i do respond to all of them that if I can. OC's are welcome to be suggested but just to be clear i will use them where i see fit. if you have legitimate story suggestions i will also take those into consideration.

brohoof to all. /)


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

After landing on the deck of the USS Cloudsdale, Admiral Luna and I made our way to the bridge. Once stepping through the threshold Luna and I snapped to attention.

"Permission to come aboard XO?" asked Luna. A young female officer with long, straight purple hair turned around and went right up to Luna.

"And why would I let you do that? You are ten minutes late admiral; I should kick you off the ship."

"Apologies ma'am, we had to adjust course on the way over to avoid some turbulence," answered Luna smirking. Meanwhile I was shaking on the inside as to what the fate of this officer would be after she relinquished control of the bridge. The officer in question, who I now noticed had a pink stripe running from her bangs to tips of her hair, got right up in Luna's face and held a scowl. She was a good eight to 10 inches shorter than Luna but that didn't stop her. Suddenly a wild grin split her face and she saluted Luna.

"Permission granted Admiral, welcome aboard." Luna returned the salute and they hugged joyously while giggling. I was now confused out of my mind over what had just transpired. The officer suddenly noticed me still at attention and got serious again.

"Now Luna, what have I told you about bringing your boyfriend onboard?" Luna blushed and playfully smacked her shoulder.

"Now Twilight, this is Commander Giovani Santori. Callsign: Night Wing. He will be one of the new aviators aboard this fine vessel.

"Welcome aboard Night Wing," said "Twilight." "I look forward to serving with you." I saluted and she returned it crisply.

"Twilight ma'am?" I asked, putting emphasis on her nickname. Luna giggled and explained.

"This is Commander Lyn "Twilight" Sparkle. She is the XO aboard this ship and has complete command when I am not on board." I nodded and then realized two very strange oddities.

"Um admiral? You said when you are not on board she has command, but isn't the Solar Eclipse your flagship?" She nodded. "Then why would you be onboard this ship at all?"

"I forgot to mention that both ships are my flagships. I'll explain later, in the meantime I have to get the Eclipse underway."

"Wait admiral," I interrupted, earning a quirked eyebrow from Luna. "I'm a lieutenant, not a commander ma'am." She smiled and held out a set of commander's insignia in her palm.

"You are now, commander." My jaw dropped and I instinctually snapped to attention as she removed my lieutenant bars and replaced them with commander's oak leaves. "I hope that you will enjoy the rank and assume the responsibilities assigned to you."

"Yes ma'am!" Luna smiled and saluted me.

"Admiral is leaving!" Twilight called out and all on the bridge stood at attention. Luna dismissed them and left the bridge. I started to relax and Twilight motioned me over.

"Congrats commander, I guess I'll be seeing you around the officer's club eh?" She smiled and offered a hand to shake. I took it and returned her smile.

"I guess you will. Now if I could get some help finding my quarters that would be great." She nodded her head and gestured over to a lieutenant.

"Spike, show commander Night Wing to his quarters if you please." A young man got up and came over; saluting once he stood next to me.

"Right this way sir," he said and I moved to follow him. As we walked I noticed that he had green hair underneath his cap.

"So lieutenant, what do you think of the ship?" I asked after a few minutes walking in silence. He looked back at me and smiled.

"Permission to speak freely sir?"

"You never need to ask permission with me lieutenant," I answered. His smile widened and he continued.

"First off, please sir, call me Spike. Second, this ship is freaking awesome! Did you notice that the admiral has a certain… affinity for electro magnets?" I nodded my head. "Well she uses the damn things on everything you can think of: MAC guns, door seals, even the aircraft catapults are using them. And according to some engineers that I've talked to, because of how much electricity they use the reactor is a third bigger than any other reactor they have worked on aboard a carrier."

"That makes sense, this ship is bigger than any before it," I said moving out of the way of some seamen as they moved some boxes. Spike nodded his head and kept walking around people without even looking.

"There's a little under 100 aircraft on board right as we speak, and we are only 85% loaded up." He jumped up and hooked his hands on a door seal to swing over a container being toted by a couple crewmen. Once he cleared it he landed and kept walking like nothing happened. "It's very exciting sir."

"I agree. So what do you do on the bridge?" I asked as I waited for the crewmen to pass.

"I'm chief communications officer sir. I handle any and all types of communication, outgoing or incoming. You could say I'm the phone operator for the whole ship."

"Must be quite challenging," I said.

"Nah, it's not so hard. I once handled all communication for the pentagon for a couple days. THAT was fun." I saw the smile on his face and I knew he meant it. "Well, here we are sir. Your quarters." He gestured to a room and I entered to check it out. There was a bed, a desk, and a shower/bathroom combo in the corner.

"Where's my computer Spike?"

"It's the desk sir," he answered waving his hand over it and it came to life. "Just place your hand on it and you'll be logged in and given clearance to everything allowed your rank." He pushed a button on the side and a Combat Information Tablet slid out from under the desk and into his hand. He booted it up and handed it to me. "Your CIT sir, keep this on you at all times. It lets me find you in a pinch."

"Copy that," I said and scrolled through the various apps and programs. "Where can I find the pilot's ready room?"

"Just ask the tablet and it'll guide you, I'm sure you'll get the hang of finding your way around the ship in no time." Suddenly a beeping sound escaped from Spike's side pouch and he pulled out his own CIT. "Ah, my mother." He answered what turned out to be a video call. "Yes Commander Twilight?"

"I need you back on the bridge Spike. We are going to be underway soon and you're in charge of comms." Spike nodded and gestured towards me.

"Just getting the commander set up on his CIT," he replied as he motioned me to hold up my CIT in front of my face. He swiped his finger across his screen in my direction and Twilight appeared on my screen as well.

"All settled commander?" she asked smiling.

"Yes commander, almost. Just gotta check on my flight gear and I'll be all set."

"Wish it was that simple for the rest of the ship… Spike get back up here ASAP, talk to you later commander," said Twilight while saluting. I returned it and dropped the call.

"I'll see you around sir," said Spike as he snapped a salute. I shrugged and held out my hand.

"You don't have to be so formal with me Spike. Call me Ni."

"I knew you were cool sir, I mean Ni. See ya 'round." He rushed out and I went out as well, consulting the CIT on where the ready room was. As I made my way through the ship I bumped into the biggest man I have ever seen. I literally bounced off of him when I glanced down to check my direction at a junction. When I looked up he was wide eyed and holding his hands up apologetically.

"I'm sorry man, I didn't see ya there," said the behemoth in a deep, slightly southern drawl. He glanced at my rank insignia and snapped to attention so hard I thought he had hit his head on the bulkhead. "Attention on deck!" he bellowed. A couple marines that were behind him also snapped to when they heard him. I saw that the man I had run into was also a marine.

"As you were marines, it's alright. No harm no foul," I said offering my hand to shake. He took my hand and gave it a light squeeze with his own massive paw. A marine lieutenant came up from behind him and saluted.

"Sorry 'bout that sir, we wuz just trying tah find our quarters," she said in a much more noticeable southern accent. I nodded my head in understanding and shook her hand after returning her salute.

"I'm on my way to the pilot's ready room," I said. "What's your name lieutenant?"

"Lieutenant Amelia Joan Jameson, but you can call me Applejack," she answered with pride. "And this here is Bartholomew Matthew Jameson, my brother. You can call him Big Mac." I smiled and nodded my head.

"I'm guessing the admiral pulled some strings for you two to serve together eh?" I asked, knowing the military prohibited putting family members in the same units. They both nodded.

"You could say that we are friends," said Applejack sheepishly. "We saved her life once when she was checking out a Forward Operating Base over in Afghanistan a couple years back. We've been on her personal roster ever since." Big Mac nodded and put his hands in his pockets.

"Well I'm sure that you guys need to get your gear sorted," I said as I pulled out my CIT. "I'll look up your room numbers and point you in the right direction."

"Thank you kindly sir, we were a bit turned around," said Applejack appreciatively. She gave me their serial numbers and I showed them the directions the CIT spit out. We said our good byes and I moved toward the ready room. Once entering I saw that a couple other pilots were already inside checking their gear and lockers. As I moved around the others I noticed that I seemed to be the highest ranked person in the room, which made me feel slightly awkward since I had skipped a rank thanks to Luna. Once I found my locker I opened it up and found a flight uniform inside that was NOT standard issue. I pulled it out and looked over it with a confused look on my face. It seemed to be slightly armored and had a holster across the chest, along with extra ammunition slots on the left leg. I took my helmet out from the top shelf and noted that it looked a bit trimmed down in terms of size and was significantly lighter. I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned to see a blond ensign saluting me. I smiled and saluted back.

"Hello sir, are you commander Night Wing?" she asked. I nodded my head and shook her hand.

"That I am ensign, and who are you?" I then noticed that her eyes were not aligned properly; as one was looking at me and the other was staring off into space.

"I'm Ensign Ditzelia Diane Doo, callsign Derpy sir. I've been assigned to be your RIO (Radar Intercept Officer)," she said cheerfully. I smiled on the outside but inside I was thinking 'dear God in heaven how did she get in the navy…?' She seemed to notice a slight hesitance in my smile and her look dropped a couple grades.

"Something wrong sir…?" she asked hesitantly. "Is it my eyes?"

"Umm…"

"Don't worry about those sir, when we are flying my adrenaline kicks in and they straighten out. Don't ask me how it works, the navy docs couldn't figure it out either." She saw my expression hadn't changed and she sighed. "They bother you don't they sir? Hold on…" she closed her eyes and her face scrunched up in concentration. After a second she opened her eyes again and her eyes were straightened. "Better sir?" I looked at her eyes that were now looking into mine intently, almost begging to be accepted.

"You have beautiful eyes no matter what Derpy," I said without thinking. Her eyes widened and a deep blush formed instantly across her face. I clapped a hand over my mouth and stared at her waiting to see what she would say. She looked down and rubbed her arm embarrassedly.

"Yellow light sir…"

"Oh God I didn't mean to sound like I was trying to… you know… seduce you or anything… I just thought they were pretty and it came out and… you must hate me now don't you…" she looked back up at me and it seemed like she had mist in her eyes.

"If that's the case sir, then thank you for the compliment." A small smile crept onto her features and she took a step back. "I need to… get my quarters sorted… ping my room if you need me." She turned and quickly left. I sighed deeply and put my uniform back in my locker and secured it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a rainbow haired lieutenant snickering with a dark haired lieutenant as they looked at me. I fixed an intense glare at her and she seemed to stop. After securing my locker I turned to leave when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey newbie, how you doing?" a male voice asked behind me. I turned around and saw the dark haired lieutenant that had been laughing earlier standing in front of me. Upon closer inspection his hair was pitch black with gray tips and swept back in soft spikes. He noticed my rank and stiffened slightly.

"Sorry sir didn't know you were a commander," he said snapping a salute. I returned it grudgingly and set my best "hardass" look on my face.

"What were you two laughing about earlier lieutenant…?"

"Shadow Flash sir."

"Lieutenant Shadow Flash."

"I'd prefer not to answer sir," he said slowly.

"That's an order Lieutenant," I said gruffly, adding emphasis on his rank. He nodded and snapped to attention.

"Lieutenant commander Rainbow Dash switched Derpy to be your RIO instead of hers sir, she wanted your RIO." My eyes squinted in anger and looked over the ready room.

"Lieutenant commander Rainbow Dash!" I bellowed menacingly over the din of the room.

"Yeah!?" came a raspy female voice from among the lockers.

"Commander Night Wing would like a word with you!" I yelled back. She took her sweet time getting over to me.

"Ok I'm here newbie, where's the commander?" she asked with a look of annoyance painted across her features.

"You're looking at him," I growled and her eyes shot open. Then she did the most insane thing I have ever seen anyone do in this situation: she started laughing! As she laughed my anger built up until I yelled out "attention on deck!" Everyone snapped to except Rainbow, who was still laughing heartily. Shadow nudged Rainbow.

"He's a commander Rainbow!" he whispered harshly. "Shut up before you get yourself court-martialed!" She slowly gained control of herself and noticed that I wasn't kidding and that everyone was standing at attention. A smidge of fear made its way onto her face and she stood at attention. I was so angry with her behavior that I went right up in her face and gave her a piece of my mind.

"Lieutenant commander Rainbow Dash, do you know how disgusted I am at you right now!?"

"No sir!" she said loudly.

"I am so disgusted that I have half a mind to keel-haul you off this ship right now! Not only was your transferring of personnel against every regulation in the book but because you did it due to a SUPPOSED impairment!? I should write you up for court-martial!" I yelled so hard that my spit landed on her face. "Now normally I'm a nice guy, but this kind of thing just rubs me the wrong way lieutenant commander." I turned away from her. "Consider your flight status revoked for your first two ops." She sputtered a bit.

"But sir! I was supposed to have the first catapult launch of the trip!" I whipped my head back to her and stood there with my nose only centimeters from hers.

"Do you think I give a rat's ass what you were supposed to do!? You are not flying for your next two flight ops, and that is final!" I started walking out of the room. "As you were everyone." I heard the room return to its buzz and I kept on walking. I pulled out my CIT and contacted Spike. "Spike, this is Ni."

"Go ahead Ni; it's all quiet for me right now."

"alert the deck officer in charge not to let a Lieutenant Commander Rainbow Dash take part in her first two flight ops; my orders."

"Copy that, the reason for the orders?"

"Disciplinary action," I replied.

"Ah, figured as much. Anything else?"

"Yeah, when are we getting underway?" He seemed to consult someone just out of microphone range and then returned to me.

"According to Twilight about 10 minutes."

"Copy that Spike, Ni out."

"Wait Ni, Twilight wants to speak with you."

"Ni? This is Twilight."

"Copy Twilight, go ahead," I answered.

"The CAG (Commander of the Air Group) won't be on board until we are already out to sea; she wants you to be on deck when she lands."

"Aye commander, that all?"

"You have a comm from the admiral," she answered sounding slightly frazzled.

"You ok Twilight?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's just that we won't be fully prepped when the admiral wants to leave…"

"It'll be ok Twilight," said Spike. "We'll be ready."

"I hope so Spike."

"Patch me to the admiral Spike," I said.

"Patching you in now." Spike and Twilight disappeared from the screen and were replaced by Admiral Luna.

"Admiral, Spike said you wanted to see me?" I asked. Her face turned towards the screen and smiled slightly.

"Yes, we will be underway soon to meet up with the rest of the fleet. I need a pilot to help with a bit of ceremonious action," she said as she adjusted something on her CIT. "Once we clear the port I need you to buzz the control tower and break the sound barrier over the port at about angels 1. Can you handle that?" My insides clenched in excitement.

"I can do that Admiral," I answered.

"Rainbow Dash was supposed to do the honors but since you grounded her I had to find someone else," she said with a teasing tone.

"It was necessary ma'am, she…"

"I'm well aware of what happened Ni, I support your decision."

"Thank you ma'am." She nodded and spoke to a junior officer. Facing me again her features became neutral.

"Well get you and your RIO ready, you have about five minutes until you are needed."

"Copy admiral," I said saluting.

"Luna out," she said and cut the link.

After contacting Derpy and getting our uniforms on we made our way onto the flight deck to board our plane. As we walked across towards the catapults, the deck was a flurry of activity; crewmen securing equipment and clearing the catapult area for launch. Once we got over to the only jet on deck I saw that a very young looking crewman was standing next to it. When I got over I saw it was a young girl, probably fresh out of basic, with long strawberry red hair peeking out from beneath her helmet. When we got up to her she saluted.

"Pleasure to finally meet you Commander Night Wing, Ensign Derpy," she said loudly. We returned her salute.

"Who are you miss?" I asked.

"Ensign Amanda Beatrice Jameson sir, ya'll can call me Applebloom. I'll be yer plane captain on this trip," she said proudly.

"You must be related to Applejack," I said. Applebloom nodded her head excitedly.

"You met her and Big Mac sir?"

"That I did Applebloom, and it's Ni. Ok?"

"Yes Ni," she said as her smile stayed on her face. "Yer bird is all ready tah go Ni, just gotta get ya'll in it." She walked us around to the side ladders and helped us up. Once in the very familiar seat of a cockpit she made sure we were strapped in tight. After that she got down and removed the ladders while Derpy closed the canopy. I strapped my oxygen mask over my face and tested the mic system.

"Derpy, Derpy. Check mic, 1, 2."

"I copy Ni," said Derpy after putting on her own mask.

"We copy on the bridge," said Spike over the comm.

"Admiral Luna aboard the USS Solar Eclipse copies."

"Glad you could join us admiral," I said chuckling. Luna laughed and clicked the comm.

"Well the first official launch is going on and I wanted a front row listen."

"Copy that admiral, I'll try not to disappoint," I said while testing all my steering flaps and stabilizers. Some crewmen worked below the nose of my plane to secure me to the catapult while others did a visual inspection on all the surfaces of the plane. Once secured all the crewmen scurried out from under and went to their next duty stations. I gave the launch captain a thumbs up and a salute and he returned it. He knelt down and pointed down the length of the catapult. A loud humming sound made its way to the cockpit and the catapult trench seemed to glow slightly. The aircraft gave a small jerk suddenly and we quickly accelerated down the strip and off the end of the boat. I pulled back on the stick as we cleared and did a fancy barrel roll off to the right.

"Good launch," stated Spike as he saw me climb higher. There were cheers on the bridges of both ships that I could hear. As I banked around to buzz the control tower of the base Derpy made an excited little squeal over the comms.

"You alright back there Derpy?" I asked.

"Yes sir," she replied enthusiastically. "I've just never been part of the going away ceremony before." I nodded my head in understanding and passed the tower with only 50 feet to spare. I pulled back on the stick again and made my way up to 1,000 feet off the deck, or angels 1 if you prefer. Once there I angled myself towards the center of port and hit the throttle up. We broke the sound barrier about six seconds later and a sonic boom echoed across the whole base.

"Yeehaw! We are underway!" I yelled into the Mic.

"Copy that Ni, now let's meet up with the fleet," said Luna happily.

"Roger that Admiral, heading back to the boat."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After meeting up with the rest of Luna's fleet, which now consisted of a battleship, a super carrier, 10 destroyers, and one submarine; the fleet mobilized for its first tour at sea. The planned rout was taking the fleet around the world, with stops in Great Britain, Italy, Africa, Japan, and then Alaska. For the past couple days all was quiet, tests being conducted almost every hour on major shipboard systems to make sure everything was in working order. Excitement rippled through the fleet on the sixth day out when Admiral Luna announced that the MAC guns aboard the Eclipse were to be fired for testing. Any crew that didn't have duties were allowed onto the decks of their respective ships to witness the test fire. This included me and my RIO, Derpy.

"Finally," said Derpy in an energetic manner. "Something interesting is going to happen." I could only nod my head in agreement. "Commander? I mean, Ni? Do you think this will be the only exciting thing to happen on this trip?"

"I doubt that Derpy, if Admiral Luna is in charge I don't think this trip will stay boring for long." She looked at me with one of her eyes as the other trailed off into the sky, doubts still lingering in her mind.

"All ships, this is Admiral Luna. Test firing will begin in 30 seconds," said Luna over the speakers of every ship in the fleet. Even the USS Blue Moon, the Eclipse-class sub of the fleet, was on the surface. Her crew on deck waiting in anticipation. The right side barrel of the first turret started glowing and a deep hum filled the air. "Fire in 3… 2… 1… FIRE!" as soon as the words left Luna's mouth the hum escalated to an electric crescendo… and then nothing happened. The hum stayed at its loud level and Luna was heard exchanging some very heated words with what everyone guessed was a fire control officer. "Sorry about that everyone, SOMEONE didn't turn on the auto-loader." A trickle of laughter could be heard aboard every ship. "Ready barrel two!" The hum from barrel one stopped and then seemed to switch to barrel two. "Fire when ready," said Luna with a frustrated tone. The hum picked up again and this time a loud crack was heard as a projectile was shot from the massive gun. That crack was a sonic boom that sent waves out from the Solar Eclipse and lapped up against all the nearby ships. Cheers rang out from across the fleet as the waves subsided.

"Again again again!" a chant rose up from all the ships and Luna giggled over the intercom.

"You want another? Fire control, Luna. Load all barrels for firing sequence." A roar of approval sounded throughout the fleet. After about a minute all the turrets aboard the Eclipse turned to the starboard side, away from bulk of the fleet, and turned up almost 80 degrees. "All MAC guns, prepare to fire," said Luna with gusto. "Are they loaded this time? Yes? Are you sure? Well go make sure! Stand by everyone…" a couple minutes ticked off the clock. Someone said something to Luna and she cleared her voice. "All hands, brace for volley." Everyone's breath caught in their chests as they waited for Luna's word. "All cannons… FIRE!" The cannons powered up to maximum discharge and the whole side of the Solar Eclipse was washed in light. A split second later eight sonic booms exploded from the four turrets simultaneously and the power went out aboard the Eclipse for about five seconds. The fleet cheered as 10 foot waves slapped against the sides of all the ships and some of the crew from the Blue Moon actually lost their footing and slipped across her deck. Derpy was beside herself as she jumped up and down and yelled as loud as she could with the rest of the crew. I glanced down the way and spotted Big Mac applauding loudly. I smiled and joined in the cheering. After a while Luna came back on the intercom. "Well I hope you enjoyed that little show because that's never happening again." A boo came from several thousand sailors and Luna gave a huff. "Don't blame me; I want to do that every night. But we can't so deal with it. All crews, back to your stations. That is all." Everyone slowly made their ways back to their respective duties and I followed the still spazzing Derpy.

"Did you see that!? That was so cool!" she squealed in delight and I couldn't help but laugh.

"This is your first trip isn't it?" I asked. She looked at me with a huge smile and nodded her head.

"Yes sir finally made it through basic this year." I looked at her curiously as we walked through the hatch to the inside of the ship. She saw the look and explained. "They wouldn't let me join because of my eyes, but Admiral Luna pulled some strings so that I could try being a RIO in a simulator. After I finished the flight instructor told me I was cleared for basic. Apparently I had broken some kind of record for the highest score as a RIO. Next thing I know I'm here, with you." She smiled again and brushed her eyes gently. I could tell she was about to cry a bit and I offered her a hug. She took it and sniffed a bit. "I'm just so glad to be here…"

"We'll look at the tender moments airwing," said an unwelcome voice from down the hall. I looked back to see Rainbow Dash and her sidekick Shadow snickering down the hall. Before I could yell at them they turned a corner and disappeared. Derpy gently pushed off of me and tried her best not to cry.

"I'm sorry sir; I didn't mean to embarrass you…"

"Derpy, I offered to hug YOU remember? Besides, why should I be embarrassed? You needed a hug, and I gave you one. No big deal right?" She looked at me and smiled softly.

"I guess not sir."

"Hey, it's Ni when we're on the ground ok?"

"Yes Ni." The way she said it made it still sounded like 'sir.' I sighed and walked towards the cafeteria.

"c'mon, Derpy. Let's get some chow." After making our way to the caf, I spotted Applejack and Big Mac in the Marine side of the line and waved to them. They waved back and I motioned them to follow me. Once we all had our food I sat down at an empty table and got ready eat. AJ and Big Mac stood attention by the table as Derpy sat down next to me.

"Permission to join the commander," asked AJ.

"Not needed AJ, you can sit with me anytime," I answered and both smiled back. They sat across from me and Derpy and set up their own trays.

"So what'd you think of the test firing Big Mac?" I asked. He chewed slowly and then swallowed to reply.

"Ah thought it was mighty fine. Great job on Luna for keeping her cool like that after the mishap." I nodded my head in agreement. After that we ate in relative silence, suddenly a thought came to my head.

"Hey, AJ. What exactly do you guys do?" she chuckled a bit and wiped her mouth.

"Well unless we're needed we usually just train in the gym. On the field though Ah'm the demolitions expert. Anti-tank rockets, C4 explosives, land mines. You name it, ah can set it." I could tell that she wasn't being boastful so I turned my attention to Big Mac.

"What about you Big Mac?"

"I'm a sniper," he said deadpan. Applejack nudged him in the side and shook her head.

"he's the best shot in the Marine Corp. and that ain't just me bein' a proud sister, he's got a certificate that says so." I arched an eyebrow at him.

"How did you manage that?" I asked him.

"I know where the wind blows," he answered cryptically.

"How do you know that?" asked Derpy in between bites. Big Mac just shrugged his shoulders and bit into a slice of bacon. I decided then to change the subject then to something less mysterious.

"So Applejack," I said. "Where can we go to get our uniforms adjusted?"

"I can handle that," said a female voice behind me with a slight English accent. I turned around and saw a drop dead gorgeous woman behind me with purple, elegantly styled hair that swooped into a curl. She got up from her seat and walked over to our table, hips swaying like she was on a fashion runway. She sat on my left and smiled brightly. "I am Lieutenant Antoinette Vespucci. But you may call me Rarity if you prefer." I was finding it difficult to look at her directly so I cast my gaze over to Big Mac but it seemed like he was having the same problem. Not wanting to be rude I looked back at her stunning visage and managed to choke out a reply.

"A pleasure Lieutenant Rarity." She smiled wider and held out a hand to shake.

"I see you are an officer who dispenses with tradition and sits with the enlisted mongrels yes?" she asked teasingly. "I think those are the best kind of officers." I blushed at her compliment as I shook her hand. Derpy seemed to shift next to me for some reason. "And it's just Rarity commander."

"Night Wing, but you can call me Ni," I responded bringing her hand to my mouth and giving a kiss to the top of it. She giggled and hid her face slightly behind her shoulder.

"Such a gentleman! And an aviator at that!" she said gesturing to the wings pinned to my chest. "What do you fly?"

"Super Hornets," I answered.

"I would love to go flying sometime; maybe one of these days you could take me up?" She asked with her eyes half-lidded and a slight smile on her lips. I nodded my head in a slight stupor. Applejack cleared her throat loudly and wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

"Miss Rarity, I have a question fer ya," said AJ with half a bite of food still in her mouth. Rarity glanced over and grimaced slightly when she saw the food in Applejack's mouth. "I wuz wonderin' if ya'll could… modify my combat gloves a bit."

"What do you need done?" asked Rarity taking a notepad from one of her chest pockets.

"Well, Ah work with demolitions so Ah need my fingers tah be a bit more flexible in combat situations; and the demo gloves they have don't have the same protection level as normal gloves."

"Say no more! I have the image in my head now, could you run along and get your gloves and meet me in the procurement office?" Rarity asked as she got up to leave. "I shall wait for you there and take care of everything." Applejack got up from the table and saluted me.

"Commander, see ya later Big Mac."

"Eeyup," replied Big Mac as I returned her salute. After the two ladies left Derpy seemed slightly agitated but I didn't think to ask her what was wrong. The rest of the meal went by uneventfully and we all returned to our respective quarters except me. I headed to the bridge to see how everything was going.

Once I was on the bridge I stood at attention.

"Permission to enter the bridge?" I asked Twilight.

"You don't need permission Ni, you're welcome up here anytime," answered Twilight smiling. I loosened up and shook her hand.

"So how goes everything?" I asked.

"Pretty well, although it's kinda boring," said another voice beside me. I turned and saw the CAG moving towards me from the Smart table in the middle of the bridge. I quickly saluted and stood back at attention.

"Captain Spitfire, how are you doing?" I asked after she returned my salute.

"Bored commander, I need something to do."

"Why don't you go up on patrol ma'am? Might be fun."

"I've already done that a couple times, but it's no fun unless someone is trying to shoot me down." Twilight and I chuckled and kept talking about various issues aboard ship. About half an hour later Spike came up to us with a strained look on his face.

"Excuse me sirs, we have a report from ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence). Apparently one of their planes went down about 30 miles from us. They want us to go recover the plane ASAP."

"Did they say why it went down?" asked Twilight.

"Shot down by some Cuban Migs." Spike had a worried face.

"I'll relay Luna the report," said Twilight. She pulled out her CIT and tapped a few icons. "Solar Eclipse, this is Cloudsdale. Admiral? We've got a situation…" Twilight explained the problem and Luna ordered the Cloudsdale, Blue Moon, and two destroyers to head to crash site while the rest of the fleet held its position. The ships complied and we altered course. "Spitfire, Ni. I want you two to go up and keep watch on the crash site, make sure to discourage the curious." Spitfire and I nodded our heads and headed down to the ready room.

About ten minutes later we made our way across the deck to our planes, which were already hooked up to the catapults. Applebloom saluted me as I neared the ladder.

"First bit of action sir?" she yelled over the jet engines.

"Hopefully not," I yelled back and returned her salute. I climbed up and saw that Derpy was already strapped in with a serious look on her face. I got in and Applebloom helped me secure myself into the chair. Derpy closed the canopy and Applebloom removed the ladder.

"Mic check, 1, 2," I said while clicking the radio.

"Derpy copies."

"Spitfire Copies."

"Cloudsdale copies," said Spike.

"Solar Eclipse copies," said Luna. I gave a thumbs up and a salute to a deck officer and waited for Spitfire to launch. Five seconds after she did I followed her up. "Spitfire, this is Luna. I need you to have your A-game for this one. Make sure NOBODY gets near that crash that doesn't have an American flag hanging on them."

"Copy admiral," said Spitfire. "Rules of engagement?"

"If someone shoots at you with intent to kill, blow their ass up," said Luna strongly. "If warning shots are fired only let them get one. I will not tolerate acts of aggression from anyone. How copy?"

"Solid copy admiral," said Spitfire.

"Good luck."

"Roger." We accelerated towards the coordinates given to us and set up a holding pattern around a guesstimated point. Not even a minute after that we picked up contacts on the radar.

"Contact, two bogeys coming in from my 10 o'clock," said Derpy anxiously.

"Soarin', you see them?" Spitfire asked her RIO.

"Negative, I don't see any… wait there they are! Coming in at angels 10 just like us."

"IFF tags?"

"Negative ma'am."

"Assume hostile, Ni! Make radio contact with them."

"Copy that," I said and Derpy switched to their radio frequency. "This is commander Night Wing, United States Navy. Identify yourselves." We waited a few moments before a voice came over the radio with a Spanish accent.

"This is Lieutenant Rodriguez of the Cuban Air force; please leave this airspace or we will assume you are here with hostile intent."

"Negative Lieutenant Rodriguez, we are here to maintain security for a crashed US plane until recovery teams can get here. Also, we are over international waters, any aggressive action taken by you will be an act of war against the United States." A pause came over the radio as we made visual contact with a couple of Mig fighter jets.

"Our own recovery ships will be here within seven hours commander. We will help with bringing the wreckage up."

"That is a big negative lieutenant Rodriguez, I have orders to fire upon anybody nearing that site," I said while I banked away from the incoming Migs. Spitfire followed my lead to let them pass.

"You would dare fire on us while we are trying to help you?" said Rodriguez with a haughty tone.

"I will follow my orders, just like you are no doubt doing," I responded. Another silence came over the radio and Derpy swallowed nervously.

"Our ships are inbound commander Night Wing, we will hold here." I sighed heavily.

"Copy that, we will do the same."

After a long and tense seven hours the Cuban ships finally arrived at the scene. Spitfire and I had rotated watch shifts in the airspace with Rainbow Dash and Shadow Flash every three hours. Now Spitfire and I had gone back up as the Cuban ships held position. Luna had been informed and she was absolutely livid about the situation. A Cuban captain made contact with us about 30 seconds after they arrived.

"This is the captain of the CNS (Cuban Naval Ship. I have no idea what they are actually called so I made it up.) Rosanna. To whom am I speaking?"

"This is Captain Spitfire of the US Navy, I'm in one of the jets circling above you captain."

"Ah, Spitfire. Surely a fitting name. We are here to assist your navy in recovering one of your planes. It would make my men more comfortable if you left."

"Above my pay grade captain," said Spitfire. "The navy can take care of this. Do not attempt any sort of recovery or I will fire upon you." A light chuckle came over the radio.

"You are bluffing Captain Spitfire; the US would not risk an international incident."

"I assure you captain, I WILL fire on you if you try anything," growled Spitfire.

"Heh, lower the crane," said the captain of the Rosanna to his subordinates.

"Ni, airburst his crane," said Spitfire quickly.

"Copy that. Derpy, use the targeting pod." Derpy nodded her head and switch one of her console's view to the underside targeting pod so she could guide the missile manually. Once lining up she announced she was firing and an air-to-ground missile ignited and detached from our Hornet. She guided it towards the crane on the back of the Rosanna and hit the detonator. The rocket exploded in mid-air and the crew of the Rosanna was rocked.

"Ha! You can't even shoot at us correctly Captain Spitfire. Some pilots you are!" said the Rosanna's captain laughing.

"I'd suggest you head back for repairs captain," said Spitfire with venom dripping from her words. The captain was about laugh more but then the smoke cleared from aft of his ship revealing what had happened. The crane was now bent the opposite of the way it should have been and there was minor hull damage around it. I could almost hear the captain's eyes bugging out of his skull.

"You will pay for that! All ships, prepare to fire on those planes!" I immediately broke my holding pattern and dropped my altitude to only 500 feet off the deck and cruised around the much older Cuban ships. They couldn't lock onto me because of how low I was and they reported that to their captain. "I don't care if you don't get a lock, fire at will!" Three of the four ships were actually warships; the three being old soviet destroyers that had been sold to the Cubans by Russia. Random missiles and various gun emplacements opened up and streaked the air with smoke and fire. Apparently during all this Spitfire managed to call Luna for support, so it was a slight surprise to hear her voice fill the speakers in a deadly cold tone.

"Captain of the Rosanna, this is Admiral Luna of the USS Solar Eclipse. You are firing on my forces; you have five seconds to stop before I consider you a hostile threat."

"Screw you Americans and your arrogance. The planes tried to sink my ship! If anything…!"

"Commander Night Wing," interrupted Luna. "Did you fire with intent to sink?" I dodged a stray missile and put my plane into a high-G turn.

"No ma'am. Only to disable their crane."

"Hm. Well in that case… USS Manehattan, Apploosa. Disable those destroyers."

"Yes ma'am!" came the reply of the two ship captains.

"Wait! What are you doing!?" cried the Cuban captain. Suddenly the main guns aboard the three offending destroyers exploded, along with a section of water behind them. "What happened!?"

"Sir! We have lost our main guns! And our propellers have been knocked off! We are dead in the water!"

"Captain! We have an incoming transmission from Admiral Gutierrez!" I maneuvered my jet to take wingman position behind and to the right of Spitfire's plane as we listened in.

"Admiral, the Americans have fired upon us as we attempted to help them recov…"

"Another word out of your mouth and I will personally shoot you captain," said Gutierrez. "Admiral Luna? My ships were acting under this fool's orders and I had no knowledge they were trying to do any of this. My deepest apologies."

"Apology accepted admiral. My forces will remain on station until my ships arrive. Until then I suggest you tell your ships to stand down or we WILL sink them," said Luna in a neutral tone.

"I will do so. They won't bother you anymore."

After a few more hours the Cloudsdale finally arrived and started recovering the ONI spy plane. Once it was recovered the detachment of ships set sail for the rest of the fleet and Spitfire and I landed back down on the deck of the Cloudsdale. Derpy made a beeline for her quarters before I could congratulate her on her first sortie. I headed to the ready room and began changing when I heard a cough behind me. I turned and saw that Rarity was standing there with a slight smile her face.

"Hey there Rarity, what's up?" I asked as I took off my flight suit.

"Well I just came down to say that you did a marvelous job out there today," she said as she walked around me and leaned on one of the lockers. I smiled as I slipped out of my suit.

"Well thank you Rarity." Her eyes widened when she saw I was only wearing boxer briefs and a white undershirt underneath my suit.

"You're… you're quite welcome darling," she said as she placed a hand to her chest. Not noticing her state I took my undershirt off and put it in a bag. Now standing before her in just my skivvies her breathing seemed to speed up. Hearing her breathing heavily I decided to tease her a bit.

"Anything else lieutenant? Or did you come down here just to see a superior officer in his skivvies?" Her eyes snapped up to mine and blushed heavily as she stood at attention instinctively.

"I'm sorry sir! That was completely unintentional!" she said embarrassedly. I smiled evilly as I put some pants on. I moved over to her and she started having trouble controlling her breathing. I kept moving up to her until my nose was only a couple inches from hers.

"You know," I said while keeping an absolutely evil look on my face. "I could put a sexual harassment report to Commander Twilight…" her eyes widened before noticing my look. She seemed to catch on to my act and kept up the appearance of a scared lieutenant.

"What can I do to avoid that sir…?" she whispered.

"Let me treat you to dinner at the officer's club, tomorrow evening at 1800. Deal?" Her eyes widened a bit, not really expecting my response. She nodded her head a bit.

"That sounds… marvelous sir. Dress whites or khakis sir…?"

"Dress whites of course Rarity, for one such as yourself anything less would be rude. Wouldn't you agree?" I leaned in so close that I could see every detail of her sparkling, vibrant blue eyes.

"I couldn't agree more…" she breathed. I leaned back and smiled genuinely.

"Excellent, well I am going to bed. Good night miss Rarity." I turned around and left an extremely flustered Rarity standing there trying to decide what to do next. As I exited the hatch I didn't notice that someone had been watching the whole thing with tears in her eyes from behind the door. She rushed down the hall and disappeared around a corner as I heard her. Not seeing anybody I shrugged and went to my room for the night, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

**Author's note: **bleh... i can't believe i didn't put one of these initially. lol hope you liked the chapter everybody. also, if you havn't already, go check out shadow Brony's stories. you'll get a good laugh and a great story. that's pretty much it really... um... check out my other story A stranger's Love. i'm told its good. lol

brohoof to all.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next day started off with very little excitement. As I walked about the ship, sailors and marines kept patting me on the back and offering congratulations on dealing with the Cubans. I took it all and thanked everyone. Having nothing else to do I decided to go see how Derpy was doing. I knocked on her door once I got there.

"Derpy? You in there?" I heard some shuffling and a door being closed.

"Yeah I'm in here. What do you need?" she said.

"Nothing much, just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out a bit," I replied leaning on the door frame.

"Sure, c'mon in," she said. "I just stepped out of the shower so I'll be changing in the bathroom."

"Ok." I opened her door and stepped in; looking around as I did so. I noticed her bed was unmade and she had a couple pictures on her mirror. I went up to it and examined the pictures more closely. "Have anything planned today?" I asked.

"Not really sir, thought I'd go hang out with Applebloom. Maybe go over some adjustments with her." I heard cloth moving and I noticed in the reflection that her bathroom door was slightly open. Not being able to help myself I focused on the opening and saw Derpy was bent over away from the door, her surprisingly shapely bottom being forced into some khaki uniform pants. I stared and admired her posterior until it, to my dismay, finally was hidden behind cloth. As she stood back up I quickly looked back up at the pictures she had on the mirror. After adjusting her shirt and pins, she came out of her bathroom with her blond hair shining from residual wetness. I turned around and gave her genuine smile.

"Well I'm pretty bored right now, may I join you?" I said. She smiled a bit and hung her towel on the edge of the bed.

"Absolutely sir."

"Derpy…" I said in a singsong voice. She blushed as she put on her shoes.

"Sorry… absolutely Ni," she corrected. I smiled and held the door open for her. As we walked through the corridors I noticed something peculiar.

"Hey Derpy? Have you noticed how this place smells?" She looked at me confused.

"What do you mean Ni?"

"Let me rephrase. Have you noticed how this place doesn't smell?"

"I'm not following…" she said slowly.

"Well, ever since we came on this ship, I haven't smelled any sort of cleaning supplies being used." Her eyes widened slightly.

"You're right! Neither have I!" she exclaimed with realization. "Why do you think that is?" I shrugged my shoulders as I stepped over door frame.

"Maybe there really hasn't been a need to clean anything yet. What with this ship being so new and everything." Derpy nodded in agreement. After a couple more minutes of walking we made it to the hangar bay of the ship. Crewmen ran about doing their duties, pilots checked in with their aircraft captains, and small trucks moved about carrying tools and parts. I took a deep breath and sighed. "Nothing quite like the smell of oil, metal, and elbow grease eh Derpy?" She giggled and nodded her head. After navigating our way through the organized chaos and noise, we found our jet parked towards the aft end of the ship; her wings folded in to conserve space. When we got near it we saw that Applebloom was nowhere to be seen.

"Applebloom?" called Derpy. "You here?" a clang was heard that seemed to come from the inside of the jet and we sprinted over to it. A couple more thuds resonated from the jet and Applebloom's helmeted head popped out from inside one the air intakes on the bottom of the plane.

"Howdy guys, what's up?" she asked with a bright smile plastered onto her grease-stained face.

"The hell are you doing in there?" I asked while trying not to laugh.

"One of the airspeed sensors got knocked loose on yer sortie yesterday. Normally Ah'd have tah remove some panels to get tah it but Ah reckoned since Ah was so small Ah could just climb in and fix it."

"Well be careful then Applebloom, I'd hate to get a new plane captain," I said while fixing her with a smirk. She laughed lightly.

"Roger that Ni," she said and disappeared back into the intake. "So you guys goin' on a date or somethin'?" Both Derpy and I sputtered.

"No! Why would you ask that?" I asked incredulously as Derpy hid her massive blush.

"I don't know. You both look good together is all…" she said in way that sounded like she shrugged. I looked over at Derpy and she had her hands over her face while breathing deeply.

"Applebloom you embarrassed Derpy," I said scolding. Another bang came from the intake and Applebloom fell out.

"Oh jeez… I'm sorry Derpy. I didn't mean tah embarrass ya…" said Applebloom as she got up taking Derpy into a hug. Derpy accepted the hug and gave me a strange look.

"Can I talk to you about some adjustments I need Applebloom?" asked Derpy as they released each other.

"Sure, whatever you need," answered Applebloom.

"This may take a while sir, I don't want to keep you," said Derpy to me, her voice wavered slightly. I nodded my head.

"Alright, let me know when you're done. See ya later Applebloom," I said. Applebloom and Derpy saluted and I returned it as I left. Seeing that I didn't have anyone to hang out with I headed up to the bridge. After an uncomfortable run in with Rainbow Dash I finally got up to the bridge. As soon as I crossed the threshold a pungent smell hit me in the face I took a deep whiff. "Is that… steak…?"

"Sure is Ni, a two inch thick slice of grilled amazingness," said Spike from his seat. "Want a piece?" I walked over to him and saw that it indeed was an amazing piece of meat. He offered a small chunk to me on a fork and I accepted it. When it entered my mouth it seemed to melt as I chewed it. I closed my eyes so I could concentrate on the different flavors assaulting my taste buds. There was some sort of herb mixture that had been grilled into the meat that tasted familiar to me.

"What herbs are on this?" I asked still chewing.

"Some adobo mix and lots of butter sir," said Spike smiling as he ripped a piece off the steak with his teeth. I nodded my appreciation. "Cooked it myself," he said after swallowing.

"Well, great job Spike," I said. "Where's Twilight?"

"She's in the head. Captain Spitfire is over at the smart table in case you need her."

"Thanks man," I said as I walked over to the smart table towards the back of the bridge. As I got a good look at it, the table was projecting a 3D image of a 300 by 500 square mile area around the battle group; showing all the relative locations of our fleet and any of our fighters in the sky. Spitfire was talking to someone over her CIT when I got to the table.

"Adjust altitude Snake Pit; you need to bring yourself to angels 20 so the radar has the best ping rate."

"Copy Spitfire, adjusting now," replied Snake Pit. His icon on the map raised itself to 20,000 feet and went into a loose orbit around the fleet's position.

"Morning captain, having fun?" I asked. She looked over and gave a tired smile.

"Commander? Do you know why they call me Spitfire?" she asked. I shook my head.

"Why?"

"Not by standing here and telling pilots what to do while staring endlessly into a fancy-ass chess board." I laughed and she joined in with a chuckle.

"Any idea when we'll be getting to the port in England?" I asked as I examined the projected chart.

"We will be arriving in about ten days if we hold current speed and heading; would have been nine but we had that Cuban issue so it cost us a day," said Twilight from behind me. "Why commander? You want some shore leave?" A teasing tone in here inflection. I turned around and laughed.

"Nah, just bored Twilight," I replied. She nodded her head in understanding and went towards her chair. "Hopefully that sortie with the Cubans won't be the only action we get on this trip."

"Honestly I hope it is the only action; I'd rather avoid international incidents," she said as she sat down and took her CIT in her hands. I chuckled and continued talking with Spitfire. A few hours later I realized that it was about 1630 in the evening. I bade my good byes to Twilight, Spike, and Spitfire to head over to my room. Once there I started prepping my best dress whites, the version with black pants, a gold cummerbund, and short white jacket. It took me about half an hour to get everything sorted, and seeing how I had an hour till my date with Rarity I decided to take a shower. Once out I put my uniform on and straightened out all my pins, ribbons, and medals. Checking the time I saw that it was getting close to 1800 so I started to double time it towards the Officer's Club. A voice called out behind me so I turned slightly to see who it was.

"Hey Derpy, what's up?" I asked as I motioned her to follow me. She picked up her pace to catch up to me.

"Nothing much, I just wanted to see if you could talk for a bit," she said while trying to not look at my face.

"Sure, I can talk until I get to the officer's club though," I said while stepping over door seals. She nodded her head.

"Well I need to tell you something… and I don't know how to say it…" she said hesitantly.

"My advice would be to say it clearly and plainly, along with gratuitous amounts of alcohol." She laughed nervously.

"Ok then… um… well when I got onboard this ship I met a fellow officer and developed… certain feelings for them…"

"If you like Twilight you don't have to worry about 'don't ask, don't tell' anymore. They repealed that a few years back," I said in a teasing voice. She slapped my arm quickly.

"Shut up you jerk, NO its NOT Twilight," she said while trying to contain a laugh. "It's a man, the biggest man I know." I sidestepped some crewmen and arched my eyebrow at her.

"You realize that Big Mac isn't an officer right?" I asked. She grabbed my arm and forced me to stop while fixing a slightly annoyed look on her face.

"You're making this more difficult for me sir," she said strongly. "I'm trying to tell you something important and you keep making jokes. This is really important to me, just like you."

"I'm flattered you think so highly of me Derpy. So what is it exactly?" I asked while giving her a warm smile. She looked away and rubbed her right arm nervously.

"Well I have really strong feelings for…"

"NI!" squealed a voice behind me, interrupting Derpy. "You look simply DASHING!" I turned around to see Rarity in an ankle-length pure white dress with her hair somehow looking even better than the last time I saw her. Her form-fitting dress had one shoulder coming off her left shoulder and sweeping underneath her right arm; her rank insignia pinned stylishly on her left shoulder and on her obviously modified CIT carrying case. A silver chain necklace hung from her neck with a light blue diamond trio attached to it. She loosely saluted me with one of her gloved hands and smiled brightly. I returned her salute along with my own smile.

"And you look simply gorgeous Ms. Rarity," I said. She twirled around slowly and looked at over her shoulder.

"You really think so darling?"

"Of course, I wouldn't say it unless I meant it," I replied while walking towards her. I turned back to Derpy. "I'm sorry, what were you gonna say Derpy?" When my eyes locked onto hers something seemed to darken behind them and suddenly her eyes reverted to their "derped" state.

"Nothing sir, nothing important," she said lowly, almost angrily. "I'll leave you to your date."

"Wait Derpy…" I said but she turned swiftly and almost jogged down a side corridor. I sighed and turned back to Rarity.

"Did I interrupt something Ni?" Rarity asked hesitantly. I shook my head.

"I don't know. She was gonna tell me something but I guess it can wait."

"If you say so," she said. "Let's get to dinner, I know the chef so I asked her to prepare a special meal for us." She linked her arm with mine and we entered the officer's club. I seated Rarity and took the chair opposite her.

"So who is the cook?" I asked as I adjusted my jacket.

"I am!" said a shrill voice behind me and I almost hit the ceiling. I turned around and saw a giggling young woman with crazy curly hair that was almost neon pink. She had an Italian chef hat on and a standard Navy cook uniform. "Ensign Pinkamena Diane Pie at your service commander! But you can call me Pinkie Pie if you prefer sir," she said in an impossibly cheerful voice with a huge smile that seemed to be permanently glued to her face. Even standing with her hands behind her back she seemed to be bursting with energy, as evidence by the fact she was standing on her toes and bouncing slightly. Her large chest ornaments bouncing as well, making it difficult for me to look at her face.

"Nice to meet you Pinkie Pie," I said as I stuck a hand out to shake. "I'm commander Night Wing, you can call me Ni." She grabbed my hand and shook it enthusiastically.

"Well its great tah meet'cha but I gotta get your food out here so you can eat, be right back!" she zipped away and my hand was still going through the motion of shaking her hand for a second before I realized she was gone.

"How did you meet her?" I asked Rarity when I turned back around. She laughed before answering.

"I made her senior prom dress a couple years ago and we met up on accident a few days ago. Now here we are." I nodded and Pinkie came back with our food; a steak that was almost exactly like Spike's from earlier was on my plate and Rarity had some chicken Alfredo pasta. After about 20 minutes of enjoying our meal, and a couple glasses of wine, a thought crossed my mind.

"Rarity? Why did you join the navy? No offense but you don't seem to be someone that would be in the military." She giggled and took a sip from her glass.

"You are very correct Ni; normally I would never have considered joining but… about a year ago I was running a smashingly successful dress boutique in my hometown. One day I came to work to find my shop in flames. A couple brave sailors that were on leave were trying to contain the flames until the fire department came by. Before they did however I was stunned to see a sailor emerge from the burning wreckage with my cat Opal. Apparently I had left her there on accident the day before; I normally took her to have some company. After the fire was put out I thanked the sailors for rescuing my precious Opal. I tried to give them some sort of reward but they wouldn't hear of it and left soon after." I listened with rapt attention.

"So what happened next?" I asked.

"Well, a couple weeks later I was watching the news and those same sailors that had rescued my cat were listed as Killed In Action after a naval accident in the pacific."

"I remember that! One of our destroyers ran into a Russian destroyer during a war game," I said.

"The very same. My business was going very slowly after the fire and I decided to honor their memory by joining the Navy. That way I could do what I love, design and create clothing, while at the same time paying my respect to those three brave souls." Her eyes seemed to be glistening slightly as she spoke. I offered a handkerchief and she thanked me quietly as she wiped her eyes.

"It must have been a difficult transition, going from designing civilian clothing to military clothing," I said sympathetically. She nodded her head slightly.

"It was at first but then when I got the hang of it I decided that I loved it even more than my previous work. Here my designs actually serve a purpose other than looking amazing. I don't mean to sound boastful or anything but I designed several new uniforms that are currently being used by the pilots and marines in our battle group. This is the field test of my designs along with Admiral Luna's ships. I am extremely proud of my designs and I hope the men love them as well." I smiled and took her hand in mine.

"Believe me, all of the people I have spoken to think the new uniforms are substantially better than the old ones," I said with a bright smile. "They help a lot with our jobs." Tears began to fall slowly from Rarity's eyes and she sniffed.

"You have no idea how good that is to hear Ni. You have made me a happy woman."

"Glad I could Rarity," I responded.

After another hour and a half I walked Rarity back to her quarters, when we were at her door she turned to me with half-lidded eyes.

"Would you like to come in Ni…? I would like your company tonight." My eyes widened a bit and I swallowed.

"As tempting as that is Rarity, I would hate to sully your reputation," I answered. She quirked an eyebrow at me.

"However do you mean?"

"Well what would people say if I were to be seen leaving your room tomorrow? Plus there is the small detail of you possibly getting pregnant…" her eyes widened and she put a hand to her mouth.

"I hadn't even thought of that…! I assumed that you carried protection…" I shook my head.

"I don't, want to know why?" she nodded her head. "Because I don't like to sleep around." Her brow furrowed at me. "I'm not saying you do Rarity! You are too high of class to do something so base and carnal." A blush covered her face and she looked down.

"Well thank you Ni and I'm sorry I assumed you did. You are just so charming I thought that you kept some on you in case of situations like this. I now see that you are not only charming but you are also sweet and thoughtful." She placed a hand on my cheek and kissed me softly, I returned it out of instinct with my eyes widened to the size of saucers. She broke off and smiled at me. "Consider that a thank you for a wonderful evening and a sweet ending."

"Well you are very welcome Ms. Rarity," I said back to her while smiling giddily. "Hopefully we can do this again sometime." She nodded her head in agreement.

"Good night Commander," she said.

"Good night Lieutenant," I said back. We saluted and then hugged. I got back to my quarters a few minutes later and sighed heavily. 'Now I just have to figure out what Derpy wanted to tell me,' I thought to myself. I shrugged and started getting ready for bed. 'Whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait.'

**Author's note:** well i hope you enjoyed this chapter; to quote a favorite author of mine "filler chapters are filling." lol anyways, sorry for the long wait. my laziness is showing. i have decided to not make this a clop fic, simply because it wouldn't work too well with the military setting. i hope you all won't hate me. lol big things are coming up and i have no idea how im gonna do some of them. lol honesty, great thing isn't it? lol

brohoof to all. /)


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

We were about a day and a half from our scheduled stop in the English port and the fleet was antsy. After several weapons tests, which were met with considerable fanfare, it was shown that Luna's MAC cannons were working properly. Although two of the destroyer's five inch guns had blown a magnet and were forced to wait until docking in port to replace the parts. I was suiting up in the ready room when Derpy came in to prep for our next combat training flight. I waved to her and she simply nodded without any expression on her face. She had been acting distant and cold ever since my date with Rarity; she had yet to tell me whatever it was that she was going to tell me that night and I felt it best to not push it. As we got ready Rainbow Dash came over and leaned on the lockers next to mine.

"So commander, looks like we're gonna be flying together today," she said evenly. "Should be fun." I sighed as I snapped my boots on. "Look sir, I know you have issues with me; and I sure as hell have issues with you."

"Is there a point to this lieutenant commander?" I asked after slipping my gloves on.

"Yes. I came here to make a pact with you." I looked up and she had a serious look on her face. "Whatever issues we have on the ground doesn't follow us up into the air. Deal?" She stuck her fist out towards me and fixed me with an honest gaze. I contemplated her fist for a second and then bumped my own against hers.

"Deal," I said. "Pull anything up there and I'll…" she held up a hand to silence me.

"I take my flying seriously sir. It's sacred to me. When we're up there I got your back; down here? You're fair game." She winked at me and a smirk made its way onto her features. "Within reason of course."

"Of course," I replied smiling sardonically. "Meet you up top." She nodded and left quickly. Once I was sure my suit was properly secured I checked on Derpy. To my surprise she was already walking out the door. I finally caught up with her on the flight deck as a couple of VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) jets were taking off the deck. Her face looked stoic and focused; her eyes both looking straight forward. Our bird was already in position by the catapults waiting for us. After greeting Applebloom we got strapped in and locked down.

"Comm check one, two," I said.

"Derpy copies."

"Rainbow Dash copies."

"Good copy, ready for launch," I said.

"Flight of two, this is Spitfire. Your designation as of now is Stinger 1-1 and 1-2. Today you will be flying a training sortie versus some of your fellow pilots. Specifically two F-35's from our stealth wing."

"Aw you could have at least given us a challenge captain," said Rainbow Dash.

"Oh I have. Not only will you be trying to shoot them down, you will do so after an emergency double catapult launch."

"Pffft, that's not so bad," said Rainbow.

"Can it lieutenant commander," I spat. I saluted the deck officer and he returned it. A few seconds later that familiar hum filled the air and we were thrown off the end of the carrier. After a shaky take off, Rainbow and I looped back towards the aft of the carrier to get into flight position.

"Oh and Stinger 1-2?"

"Yes captain?" said RD.

"You're in gun range."

"Fuck!" yelled Rainbow Dash as she quickly spun into a barrel roll and then into a high G turn to the right. I did the same only in the opposite direction and saw that the two F-35's were already on our tails. One for each of us.

"Derpy! Get a lock on their radar signatures now!" I yelled as I jinked my aircraft back and forth; looking for an opening to turn the tables on my pursuer.

"Copy that!" she yelled back as she adjusted the radar. "Got it!" she exclaimed as I saw a blip appear on my screen.

"Good job, now hang on!" I yelled before pulling straight up into a climb. The blip centered on my radar and I knew he was following us. I jerked the stick back and we laid onto our back before turning our nose down. When I looked down I couldn't believe what I saw: the F-35 was hovering in place back where I had started the climb. Its nose turned towards me and I heard the missile lock alarm go off. "Shit!" I yelled and gunned the throttle as I turned straight for him. The pilot must have panicked because the alarm stopped as he flipped his bird to the side in a barrel roll. As I passed him he switched modes and accelerated away from me. I pulled another high G turn and got right behind him.

"Good tone, good tone…" announced Derpy as we locked on.

"Fox 2!" I said as I squeezed the trigger. A simulated missile appeared on the radar and "hit" the F-35 in front of us.

"You are down Stalker 1-2, return to base," said Spitfire over the comms.

"Damn it… good flying Stinger 1-1," said the pilot of Stalker 1-2.

"You too," I replied and banked my plane in Rainbow's direction. "Where are you Stinger 1-2?"

"We are engaged at your 1 o'clock, about two angels above you," said Rainbow Dash's RIO.

"You're just in time to see me smoke this guy Ni," said RD cheerfully.

"Not quite Stinger 1-2," said the voice of who I guessed was Stalker 1-1. His plane suddenly banked up and switched modes. He lost most of his speed and ended up behind Rainbow's Hornet where he switched back to normal flight and locked on. "Fox 2," he breathed and Rainbow swore loudly.

"You are out Stinger 1-2, return to base."

"Copy that captain," growled Rainbow as she grudgingly banked her plane back towards the carrier. "Take this son of a bitch down for me Ni."

"I'll do my best," I said and I hit the throttle to catch up to Stalker 1-1. "Derpy, you got his sig?"

"Got it when he shot Rainbow down," she replied in a focused voice.

"Copy that." He jinked his aircraft back and forth- adding some loops in for good measure- trying to loosen my aim but I followed his every move.

"You're pretty good Stinger 1-1, how about we try something different?" Stalker 1 leveled out his plane and I did the same right behind him.

"We got a lock!" yelled Derpy, but before I could squeeze the trigger time slowed down in my mind. I saw the subtle movements of the panels underneath the jet move forward to let the engine exhaust turn downwards. He was switching to hover mode to pull the same maneuver on me that he had done to Rainbow Dash. I flicked my thumb on my joystick to switch to my 20mm cannon while angling my plane up. I vaguely heard Derpy yell a question as Stalker 1's plane flew past our cockpit. I jammed the stick against me as I cut power to the engines while engaging the airbrakes and the backside of our Hornet basically powerslid out from under us. As the plane flipped around I never lost sight of Stalker 1 while he switched back to flight mode. The instant he saw me he switched to his gun. At this point I was facing him dead on while upside down, and flying backwards in between seconds. We both squeezed our triggers at the same time and we both hit each other. I kept the stick pulled back and I went into a dive. I eased the throttle up and once we were going fast enough I pulled up and took wingman position behind Stalker 1.

"Umm… I guess both of you are out. Return to base," said Spitfire with a slightly flabbergasted tone.

"Copy Cloudsdale, RTB," said Stalker 1. "Not THAT is what I call flying Stinger 1. How the hell did you pull that off?"

"Family secret Stalker 1, I might tell you if you get me drunk," I replied. He laughed.

"Roger that, see you on the deck, Stalker 1 out."

"You didn't tell him you don't drink alcohol," said Derpy while stifling a laugh.

"Nope," I said.

"You gonna tell him?"

"Nope." Derpy burst out in a fit of giggles and I heard Spitfire chuckle over the comm. Stalker 1 split off from us as we neared the carrier and landed in front of the aft hangar door. Once he touched down we were cleared to land on the starboard landing strip. After getting towed to the hangar elevator and riding it down, Derpy and I hopped out. As we were walking a shout was heard over the din of welding, truck engines, and random sparks. We turned to see a pilot jogging towards us.

"You are Stinger 1-1 no?" asked the pilot.

"Yes, we are," I replied. A smile split his face and he saluted us.

"Lieutenant Rodrigo Alberto De la Menza, at your service. I was Stalker 1-1." His ice blue eyes seemed to sparkle when I returned his salute.

"Pleasure to meet you lieutenant. I'm Commander Giovani Santori, and this is…"

"Ensign Ditzelia Diane Doo. You can call me Derpy," she said as she smiled brightly and stuck her hand out to shake. He gracefully accepted the hand and even bowed slightly.

"You may call me Deagle," he said as Derpy blushed at the bow.

"I'm Night Wing, Ni for short," I said when I noticed his eyes were glued to Derpy. He looked over at me with the same grin still on his face.

"Ah! So you are the infamous 'Ni.' My compliments go to you on how you handled the Cuban issue," he said. "Nice to know one of my commanding officers has some combat experience."

"Thanks," I said. "So you're part of the stealth unit on board? Seems like your plane is pretty fancy." I don't know how it was possible but the gleam in his eyes got brighter.

"Oh sir… she is a thing of beauty," said Deagle with a wondrous tone. "You haven't truly flown until you've had a ride in one of those. Perhaps I could give you some lessons?"

"Maybe later, but thanks. I'll be sure to take you up on that offer," I replied and Derpy got excited.

"Could you maybe teach me as well?" she asked hopefully. Deagle turned his smile back towards her.

"Of course, I would gladly teach you just for the opportunity to be around such a beautiful creature such as yourself." Her cheeks reddened considerably and she looked down embarrassedly. I took that as an opportunity to leave.

"Well thanks Deagle, we'll get going now. See ya later."

"I insist I buy you drinks, to celebrate our victories," he said jovially. "Besides, I want to learn how you did that trick up there." I turned to walk away.

"Maybe, I'll see you at the OC." He bowed to Derpy who curtsied back.

"So I shall."

A little while later in the Officer's Club, Derpy and I were seated at the bar waiting for Deagle to arrive. We had changed out of our flight gear and were now in our khaki uniforms. Sighing deeply I turned towards Derpy who had her gaze locked on the door; well part of her gaze anyways.

"Derpy?" I said carefully.

"Yes sir?" she replied, her sights still on the door.

"Are you… umm… are you upset with me?" She blinked a couple times.

"Yes," she said finally. Seeing that she had answered honestly I took it as a good sign.

"May I ask why?"

"You may."

"Why are you upset with me?" She moved her gaze to me, one eye off in space, and set her face in a way that it looked like she was scolding a small child.

"You don't know anything about women do you?" she asked, with a subtle acid quality in her voice.

"No I don't. What gave you the impression I did?" I asked while chuckling slightly. Her gaze softened for a split second and then returned to its annoyed countenance.

"Well you charmed Rarity rather easily; I thought you just charmed all the girls that well." My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"I wasn't even trying to do that! I just did the cheesiest thing that came to mind!" Her poker face slipped slightly.

"Well you did a better job then you thought. Rarity hasn't stopped talking about you since your date."

"She's been talking about me…? I didn't think I was that special… how do you know she's been talking about me?" Derpy took a deep breath before answering.

"Well she talked to Pinkie Pie, who then talked to Applejack and Twilight, and then Applejack went and spilled to Applebloom, who then told me about it."

"Great… who has she NOT talked to?" I asked sarcastically.

"You don't like the attention?" asked Derpy in a tone that was surprised with just enough sarcasm to make me wince.

"You think I like this kind of attention? Really? Sure it's flattering that she thinks so highly of me but I don't want this kind of thing to be spread all over the damn ship." I put my face in my hands. "All I wanted to do was have a good time and maybe, just maybe, make a friend. I didn't want to suddenly become the fucking dreamboat that all the girls talk about… damn it…" I couldn't see Derpy's now smiling face.

"So you don't like Rarity in a romantic way?" she asked as evenly as she could manage. Her smile quickly vanished before I could see it and I affixed her with a "are you kidding me" look. I chose my next words carefully.

"She seems very nice, and if I ever did date her I would probably enjoy it. But, and try to understand what I mean with this, she needs a better suited man than me. Put simply, I'm not her type."

"What do you mean?" she asked with her brow furrowed in confusion.

"She needs a different type of man, one that is much more relaxed and strong for her. I'm not a good match for her so I won't get in the way of whoever is." Derpy's gaze softened and I could swear she almost "awww'ed."

"Rarity was right, you ARE the sweetest guy ever," she said as she placed a hand on my shoulder. I recoiled slightly at her touch.

"Yeah, now you think so. What gave you the impression that I just charm girls for the attention? Do I really seem that petty?" She looked down and shamefully muttered an "I don't know" and I snorted. "Well I hope you have a nice time with Deagle, I'm going to find some people that make sense. See you later." Her head jerked up in shock as I got up to leave.

"Please stay," she pleaded. "I'm sorry I thought that you were like that…" I waved at her dismissively.

"Whatever you say." I walked down the corridor and passed a confused looking Deagle as he was heading towards the OC.

Later I found myself in one of the ship's gyms, my khaki dress shirt stripped off and my undershirt drenched in sweat. I was currently beating the shit out of an unfortunate punching bag, using punches, kicks, and full body strikes. I had been going at it for about half an hour before I noticed that Big Mac had shown up. He lazily made his way over to me.

"Hey sir, yer pretty good," said Mac as I delivered a devastating push kick.

"Thanks," I growled as I followed the kick with an elbow strike.

"Y'all ok sir?" he asked. I cursed his keen perception.

"Nothing I want to talk about right now sergeant," I replied, unleashing several blows.

"Copy that. If ya don't mind sir, could ya spot me at the bench-press?" I steadied the punching bag and started undoing the straps on my gloves.

"Sure Big Mac." He nodded and went over to the aforementioned bench-press. He locked in about 350 pounds onto the dumbbell and then sat down on the bench. I moved to the head of the bench and nodded my head. He laid back and gripped the bar.

"So how are ya doing today sir?" he asked as he lifted the bar and started pumping it up and down at a slow pace.

"Meh. I wish I was doing better," I answered.

"Dealin' with Rainbow Dash?" he asked.

"I wish," I replied. "It's something that turned more complicated than it should have been."

"Hm," he grunted. After several more lifts, Mac spoke up again. "Ah know you and Ah aren't exactly chummy sir, but it might be helpful for ya tah talk about it with someone." I nodded my head while I rubbed my temple.

"You're right Mac… you know that 'date' I went on with Rarity?" He nodded his head in between lifts. "Well apparently I really impressed her with my personality because now it seems like all the women on this ship are talking about me." His chuckle sounded like a low rumbling.

"No offense, but how's that a problem sir?" I sighed deeply.

"I don't want to seem like I'm a womanizer or a charmer, you know?" He nodded his head.

"Ah can see how you don't want to come off as a slut sir," he said as he winked at my glare. "But knowing Rarity? She would have just talked about how nice you were to her; and how you saved her reputation."

"So you've heard the scuttlebutt?"

"Eeyup, from mah sis. Both of 'em."

"Nice…" I said sarcastically. He slowly placed the bar back on the support pegs and sat up to face me.

"Now hold on sir, they never once mentioned any ill words about you. They just kept goin' on and on about how gentlemanly, and courteous you were. Nothin' was said about you being a womanizer or anything like that."

"Really? Well that's good… I guess," I replied.

"Respectfully sir? Ah think you're being a little bit retarded with all this. Why would you think that they thought you were a womanizer?"

"Well I was with Derpy earlier and she seemed to think I was." Mac chuckled.

"Women are just weird sir. Wanna know what mah momma said about understandin' women?"

"What'd she say?"

"She said 'women don't understand women, so don't try.'" I laughed and Mac joined in.

"I'll have to remember that," I said as I caught my breath. "Hey Mac?"

"Eeyup?"

"We should hang out more, maybe get my friend Spike and go do something."

"Ah'd like that sir," said Mac smiling. "What could we do?"

"Well I could probably arrange for a flight up in my bird, and you could teach us how to shoot like you do." Mac's face lit up and his smile got bigger.

"That sounds like fun sir, it's a deal."

"Oh and Mac?"

"Yes sir?"

"Call me Ni." He chuckled a bit and shook my hand.

"Yes sir."

**author's note: **sorry for the wait, laziness and school don't mix very well. lol quick message to whoever suggested a marine OC for the story, i can't find the message where you told me about him and i dont remember who you are. please send me the charactar again, i would have used him in this chapter but i couldn't find the message online. i looked for like half an hour. anyways to the rest of you, hope you enjoyed this filling filler. lol next chapter is when some MAJOR plot elements get introduced so you don't want to miss it. also, HALO 4 MADDA FACKAS! i can't wait. see you guys next chapter (or if you message me. lol).

brohoof to all. /)


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Dawn came on the day the fleet was to dock in England. I was up in my bird with Derpy as the sun came up and we enjoyed the fresh light of a new day. As I banked lazily across the fleet Derpy let out a yawn and I chuckled.

"getting' a little sleepy back there Derpy?" I cooed. She smacked the backside of my chair.

"Shut up sir, my head hurts…"

"Another night out drinking with Deagle? You realize he drinks you into the ground every time right?" I asked while trying not to laugh at her hangover.

"Curse men and their large livers…" she said while a throb entered her head again.

"Brace for landing…" I said after getting cleared to land on the Cloudsdale. Once we were secured Derpy retired to her room to sleep off her hangover and I went to the bridge to hang out with Spike. Once I got there I could see the bridge was a flurry of activity. All the bridge crew was organizing and coordinating the ship with the rest of the fleet. I tapped Twilight on the shoulder and she stepped to the side a bit to let me see her CIT screen, where Luna's face resided. "Good morning admiral," I said as I saluted.

"To you as well commander," she said returning my salute. "I actually was about to contact you."

"What do you need ma'am?" I asked.

"I'm meeting up with an old friend of mine and he's coming aboard to say hi. He has a certain… appreciation for pilots so I thought I'd bring one of my aces."

"Well I thank you for the compliment but wouldn't it be better if you took the CAG?"

"She is tending to her flock of wild birds for the duration of our stay in England, plus she said no. Something about dealing with political bullshit." We all laughed and Luna spoke to a bridge officer before turning back to us. "He will be arriving with his escort for lunch at 1200 hours. I expect you to be on the Solar Eclipse by 1100 commander, that's an order."

"Copy that ma'am, I'll be there," I answered smiling.

"Good, Luna out." The screen reverted to a main menu with fleet data scrolling down the side. I turned to Twilight and smiled.

"So how's preparations for docking?" I asked.

"Going good so far but one of the propellers on the Apploosa is malfunctioning and it can only go at 1/3 speed right now," she answered with a sigh. "I swear whoever built this fleet decided to put all the messed up parts onto that boat."

"Isn't its cannon messed up too?" I asked, and she nodded her head.

"Commander! The captain of the Apploosa is reporting that his starboard propeller has stopped working completely, orders?" said Spike suddenly. Twilight sighed explosively and facepalmed.

"Tell them to proceed at best speed without straining their reactor. Tell him to report his best possible speed once he's achieved it."

"Copy ma'am," replied Spike and relayed the message.

"God what is wrong with that ship?" muttered Twilight.

"Don't know," I responded chuckling. "I'll get out of your hair. See ya around." I turned away and headed towards my room to get ready for my lunch appointment with the admiral. After weaving my way though the bowels of the ship I got to my cabin to pick up my dress whites which Rarity had diligently resized for me. Once packed I headed up to the top deck to wait for my ride over to the Solar Eclipse. After waiting for only ten minutes I saw an Osprey heading towards the Cloudsdale from the general direction of the Solar Eclipse. It touched down in front of me and the rear hatch opened up. I jogged over to it and got in, making sure to seal the hatch behind me. "Hatch sealed!" I reported.

"Copy that sir, ready for takeoff?" came a soft voice over the intercom.

"Yes ma'am, that you Fluttershy?" I asked with a smile. The door to the cockpit opened and Fluttershy leaned out of her seat and gave me a salute.

"Yes sir it is, how are you doing today?" she asked as she righted herself.

"I'm alright. I have a question."

"Yes sir?"

"I was wondering if I could ride up front with you, I noticed that your co-pilot seat isn't taken and I prefer riding in the front of a bird," I asked hopefully. I could almost hear her blush.

"Um… s-sure sir, t-that's ok with me…" she replied shakily. I got into the seat next to hers and strapped in. After getting clearance to take off we headed in the direction of Luna's ship.

"So where is your co-pilot?" I asked suddenly. She started a bit before answering.

"The poor dear is sick, caught some sort of food poisoning a couple days ago."

"I'm sorry to hear that, I hope he gets better," I responded and she nodded her head in acknowledgement. As we flew I found myself transfixed with her hands and their delicate movements across the various instruments in the cockpit. It was a beautiful thing to watch as her hands danced to keep the Osprey on course and at a smooth flight. She must have noticed my stare and blushed a bit.

"See something you like sir?" she said with a teasing/embarrassed inflection in her voice.

"Oh! Um…" I started but then my eyes roved over her form. Her lovely, delicate hands, her slender arms, the uniform that hugged her generous bust like a drowning person to a life preserver, and her almost angelic face framed by her flight helmet with her sparkling turquoise eyes; it left me speechless for about five seconds before I gained control of my body again. "Well yes actually." Her blush deepened and her graceful hands slipped on the controls a bit.

"T-t-thank you sir…" she stammered.

"You really are beautiful Fluttershy; surely you must have a nice guy waiting for you back home?" I asked. The craft dipped suddenly to the left before righting itself.

"n-no sir, guys don't really like me that much…" she said quietly. My eyebrows shot up.

"You're kidding right? You're gorgeous! And you seem like you have a great personality," I said genuinely. She smiled and pretended to spot something away from me.

"Sir…"

"Call me Ni, all my friends do."

"Yes sir. Ni, sorry…" she said flustered. I chuckled.

"It's ok, you seem like the kind of person that I would like to know better," I said. "What do you say we meet up for dinner sometime?" she sputtered audibly and almost lost her grip on the stick.

"y-yellow light sir…" she managed to say. I quickly put my hands up in a surrendering motion.

"Whoa whoa there Fluttershy. I don't mean like a date or anything, just two people eating dinner together. You CAN say no if you want," I stated quickly. She sighed and turned her face to mine.

"It just seems a little sudden for me s… Ni. I'll think about it, if that's ok with you."

"Yeah that's perfectly fine, take as much time as you need," I said while smiling brightly at her. She smiled slightly and nodded her head. Very soon after that I was on board the Solar Eclipse being led to the bridge by a very quiet Fluttershy. Once on the bridge I noticed right away that this was no ordinary command ship. For one thing, the actual square footage of the room was massive, there were at least 25 duty stations with 30 bridge officers manning posts and walking around. Luna was seated at the captain's chair in the middle of the room with a holo table in front of her that measured six feet long and four feet wide. Her back was to the door but I could still see that there was an insurmountable amount of data being projected in the air; not only in front of her but all over the bridge. Needless to say I was floored by the set up.

"Permission to enter the bridge?" I asked once I broke out of my stupor. Luna perked up and turned her chair around to look at me. I stood next to Fluttershy at attention waiting for her response.

"You're early," said Luna with a quirked eyebrow.

"I'm sorry ma'am, I can take him back out and fly around the ship a couple times if you like," said Fluttershy nervously. Luna chuckled and shook her head.

"Fluttershy, you know I don't mind."

"Oh, ok…"

"Permission granted by the way," said Luna. "I'll brief you in a bit." Fluttershy said her goodbyes and left the bridge and I milled around the bridge for a bit. After waiting about 20 minutes Luna came over to me and motioned me to follow her. We made our way off the bridge and through the ship. After walking a while we got to a bulkhead door marked "Admiral Luna" and Luna opened it. We walked in and she closed the hatch behind her. "Have a seat commander." I took a seat in a leather chair at what I guessed was a mahogany desk with a smart table built in. She sat in her chair and logged into her table.

"I'm guessing you have had some sort of contact with the person we are meeting?" I asked. She smiled and glanced at me.

"Perceptive, good. Yes I have met with our British contact before; in a war game that I beat him."

"He's an admiral?" I started, suddenly getting a nervous feeling in my gut.

"That he is. Vice-admiral Richard Nekri of Her Majesty's Royal Navy, he commands the United Kingdom's 18th fleet and has been their spearhead in the Anglo-Sudanese war they got going on."

"THE Nekri? As in the guy that basically caused the war?" I asked incredulously. Luna nodded her head.

"That won't be a problem will it commander?" she asked.

"No ma'am, I'll show him all the proper respect an admiral who was beaten by you deserves," I said trying to hold back a laugh. She giggled and swiped through some menus; pulling one file out and moving it towards me.

"Well that's good to hear; otherwise I would have thrown your ass off the side of my ship." We both laughed and I "grabbed" the file floating before me. As I read through the file Luna gave me a small briefing.

"He and I met during the International War games in 2013; I beat his fleet in the three on three naval stealth game. He took out two of my destroyers before a storm came in with some heavy fog and I managed to take out his three ships by getting them to "ram" each other."

"That is badass ma'am," I said.

"Yes it was. After that we met up for drinks and he and I became friends of sorts."

"Of sorts ma'am?"

"We respect each other, but we are not necessarily friends. At least that's how he sees it," she said getting a strange tone in her voice.

"What do you see it as ma'am?" I asked tentatively.

"I consider him a good friend; I consult with him sometimes on issues that I think need a third-party view. Anyways, get yourself sorted in your whites Ni; I'll meet you at the helipad."

About half an hour later I was standing on the aft helipad of the Solar Eclipse waiting for Luna. Her XO on the ship was standing next to me along with a marine honor guard lining the walkway towards the ship. The XO was in his Khakis, I was in dress whites, and the marines were in their black and blues. As I looked around I could just barely make out the British coastline in the distance. I heard the hatch open and I turned to see Luna walk out onto the deck.

"Admiral on deck!" yelled the marine sergeant and we all snapped to attention.

"At ease gentlemen," said Luna as she adjusted her cover, which had a deep blue instead of white on the top. "Any news?"

"Not yet ma'am, he said he would contact us when he was two minutes out," said the XO.

"Copy that XO. You still nervous Ni?"

"A little ma'am, not sure what to expect," I said honestly.

"Boring talks, more talking, and a bit of eating to distract us," she said and we both chuckled. A few minutes later a grainy, female voice came over Luna's CIT.

"Solar Eclipse this is Gryphon 1, come in."

"This is Admiral Luna of the Solar Eclipse, we read you Gryphon 1."

"We're coming in, one minute to touch down."

"Copy that, aft helipad cleared for landing," said Luna as the XO relayed the announcement to the bridge. I began to hear the sound of jets approaching and I turned to see three jets on an intercept course with the Solar Eclipse. One was a modified Harrier VTOL jet being flanked by two Typhoon fighters. As they got closer the Harrier split off and lowered its altitude until it was about 400 hundred feet off our deck. While the Typhoons passed us, the Harrier switched modes and started descending onto the helipad. Once it touched down the engines powered down and the marines snapped to attention. The XO made his way over to the jet to help with debarking while I stood at attention. After getting a ladder in place, the pilot and what looked like the admiral got down. The XO saluted the admiral who returned it as an afterthought. The pilot and the admiral made their way over to us as some deckhands secured the jet to the deck. I saluted when they came in range but they ignored me.

"Luna, you're still alive," said Nekri with an English accent.

"As are you Richard," said Luna as she smiled brightly. A ghost of a smile formed on Nekri's face and they shook hands.

"Who is this?" asked Nekri gesturing to me.

"This is Commander Giovani Santori, callsign Night Wing; he prefers being referred to as Ni," said Luna. He looked me over before returning the salute.

"You seem… adequate. At ease commander."

"Yes sir," I responded. The pilot hadn't taken her eyes off of me since they got within 20 feet of us and it was starting to make me uncomfortable. She was wearing an old fashioned style leather jacket, her hair was dyed white, and she had some seriously thick eyeliner. I made the mistake of looking at her and she licked her lips at me seductively. My eyebrows shot up and she winked at me. I reverted my view back to the admirals who had turned to walk back inside. I followed them and the pilot got next to me. I almost recoiled when she brushed against me but I managed to keep the instinct down. By the time we got to the Officer's Club I was officially weirded out by this woman. We sat at our own table, with Luna sitting across from Nekri and me sitting across from the female pilot.

"My apologies for not introducing my pilot, this is Gilda; leader of Flyers Incorporated. Also one of the best damn pilots at my disposal," said Nekri gesturing to Gilda as she fixed him with smile.

"It's not my fault I'm the best," she said while shrugging. "Oh wait, it is." She laughed heartily and my feeling of awkwardness increased.

"Well the commander here has quite the impressive record as well, most successful night ops out of all the naval aviators," said Luna. Nekri set a look on me like he was considering buying a car.

"Really now?" he asked. "Tell me commander, are you good at night because you like the night? Or is it because you are a coward that won't let the enemy see you?" Luna coughed and my hand tightened into a fist under the table in anger.

"Excuse me?" I asked as politely as I could.

"I did not stutter commander. Are. You. A. Coward?"

"Sir. NO sir," I answered forcefully. He nodded his head and leaned back.

"Now Luna I had…"

"I am also not arrogant sir, unlike some other officers," I interrupted, instantly wishing I hadn't continued. His gaze shot back to me.

"Excuse me commander?" he asked, his voice laced with fury.

"I did not stutter sir," I replied trying to stay relaxed.

"You will allow such insubordination under your command Luna?" he asked.

"What insubordination? He hasn't said anything that would require me to have him thrown in the brig. Furthermore he can't be insubordinate to an officer of the British Navy who is on an AMERICAN ship. The only reason he is referring to you as sir is as a courtesy and you know it Nekri; so quit this little test," she said vehemently. Nekri looked like he was about to bust an artery and then his entire demeanor went ice cold like someone had flipped a switch. He even chuckled.

"Good, good. You are a worth watching commander," said Nekri as Gilda busted out laughing; which to me sounded like nails scratching a chalkboard. Luna let out an exasperated sigh and fixed a slight glare on Nekri.

"You really need to stop doing that Nekri; I can never tell when your serious," she said.

"Where's the fun in that Luna?"

After about an hour of mostly political bullshitting we all got up from our meal that Pinkie Pie had made, which surprised me, and Luna invited us all back to her quarters. Nekri told Gilda to head back to her Harrier and wait for him there; which she just shrugged in response and fixed another seductive look on me. It backfired and made me throw up a little in my mouth. Once secured in Luna's quarters Luna spun around and looked straight into Nekri's eyes.

"Now that the politics and non-military are out of the way, what do you need Nekri?"

"Your fleet," he said without missing a beat. "As much as I hate to admit it, I need your help." Luna nodded in understanding and I just stood there with a confused look painted on my face.

"What would you have us do?"

"Additional patrolling along the middle eastern and African coastline. Nothing major, just your standard patrol routes, maybe ground support to our troops when necessary."

"And?" said Luna while making mental notes.

"Direct links set up to your fleet's strategic information flow." Luna gave Nekri a "are you fucking kidding me" face and crossed her arms.

"You know I am not authorized to let you have access to that correct? I need authorization from the president herself," she said. "And even if she did consider it, she would only grant that if you said please. Which you never do." Nekri briefly smiled before getting serious again.

"Just set up a video conference with her and I'll even say pretty please." Luna straight up laughed and I was tempted to laugh as well.

"Alright, let me see what I can do."

I was dismissed and seeing as how I didn't have anything to do I thought I'd fly back to the Cloudsdale. Fluttershy graciously took me back and promised to take me up on my dinner offer at some point. Once back on board I hit up Big Mac and Spike for a little shooting practice. During the meeting with Nekri our fleet had made it to port and five of our destroyers were docking for repairs and refits. The rest of the destroyers, along with the Solar Eclipse, Cloudsdale, and the Blue Moon; waited for them about a mile away. Since we were anchored and not really needing a refit of our own, non-critical crew members were given some time off. I met up with Mac and Spike on the starboard landing strip where Mac dumped a couple large bags onto the deck. Apparently we weren't the only ones with this idea as several other marines and naval personnel were setting up various weapon stations and clay pigeon launchers. Pretty soon the air was filled with random gunshots and heavy weapons fire. We put on our safety glasses and ear plugs while Big Mac opened the bags to reveal three SPAS-12 shotguns and several boxes of ammo. Spike almost started jumping up and down when he saw the weapons and I chuckled. After a brief explanation on how the guns worked (seriously, they're shotguns, not too difficult to operate) we opened up on no target in particular just to get used to the kick. Apparently Spike was holding it incorrectly and when he fired he almost spun around 360 degrees.

"Whoa watch it with that thing!" yelled Big Mac.

"Sorry!" Spike yelled back. "This thing is freaking huge!" It was true, the SPAS looked thicker than Spike's arm, while on Big Mac it looked it shrank in the wash. Once Mac gave Spike another lesson on how to hold it correctly we quickly moved on to target practice. Spike improved dramatically and we soon were having a great time. As I racked the last spent round out of my SPAS I saw the Mac was cleaning up.

"Over already?" I asked after uncorking my ears.

"Eeyup," he replied. "We were goin' at it fer about two hours sir."

"Wow… and its Ni on the ground sergeant, that's an order."

"Copy that Ni," he said as we all laughed. As we were heading back the wind picked up and knocked Spike's cover off his head. He and I ran for it as it danced across the deck. We chased it for about 50 meters when I finally snatched it from the ground and handed it back to Spike.

"Nice catch Ni," said Spike appreciatively.

"No problem Spike," I replied with a smile. He smiled back until something caught his eye behind me. His face dropped harder than a sack of bricks and he started shaking. "What's wrong man?" I asked becoming alarmed. He stuttered and pointed a shaky arm behind me. I turned around. "What's the big fuss…?" That's when I saw a mushroom cloud on the coast in the distance and the sound of an explosion finally reached the ship. Warning klaxons sprang to life filling the air with the sound that everybody feared.

"All hands, all hands. General quarters, general quarters. This is not a drill; I repeat this is not a drill. All pilots to your aircraft, emergency launch protocols are in effect," came Twilight's voice over the ship wide PA system. As one all the crew that was massed on the deck stowed their gear and hauled ass to their duty posts. Since Mac, Spike and I had already cleaned up our mess we were already bolting towards an entrance to the inside of the ship. I immediately separated from them and got to the pilot's ready room to suit up. Every other pilot and aviator was there doing the same thing I was. No words were exchanged, and no jokes were made. This is what we had been trained to do. After strapping my helmet on I ran towards one the main aircraft elevators where I saw my Hornet being loaded. I jumped on as it started moving up. Applebloom, and Derpy were already there setting up a ladder to get into the cockpit. Once strapped in I looked around and saw that Rainbow Dash's plane was next to mine and Deagle's was behind me. I flipped them both a thumbs up which they returned with stoic expressions. Once up top we were quickly towed onto the catapults and locked in. Rainbow Dash and I were launched at the same time not even 10 seconds after being put into position. As we flew up we set into a predetermined holding pattern around the Cloudsdale as the rest of the fighters, helicopters, and transports were launched/took off.

"Night Wing, this is Solar Eclipse," said Luna over the radio.

"Copy Eclipse, go ahead," I replied.

"Set a course for that explosion sight and see what you can tell me. All the comms are a mess and I can't get anybody on the horn from our fleet, much less the Brit's port. Tell me what the HELL is going on over there."

"Solid copy Eclipse, wilco."

"Eclipse out."

"Rainbow, you're with me," I said.

"Copy lead," she replied. I banked quickly and set off directly toward the thick cloud of smoke that was streaming from the English naval port. Once we were about 3,000 feet above it I put my bird into a loose orbit around it.

"Oh my God…" breathed Derpy in the back seat.

"Holy FUCK…" swore Rainbow. My eyes traced the stream of smoke down to its source and sucked in a breath at what I saw. Down in the harbor I saw four of our ships hauling their collective asses out of the port at maximum speed; but that wasn't what made my stomach want to jump out of my body and vacation all over my dashboard. It was the ship that was on fire. One of our destroyers was split in half and had sunk in the shallow water. A part of the bow was sticking out from the water and some of the name was still visible: the USS Apploosa. Its aft section was completely on fire and fire crews were working on putting it out. The blast was huge because as I looked around I saw huge scorch marks along the dock and small fires burning along its length. My plane dipped slightly when I forgot to keep my turn steady and I slowly returned to normal breathing. I went into an ice cold state of shock and instinctually fell back on my training.

"Admiral Luna, this is commander Night Wing."

"Go ahead commander, what in the hell is going on down there?" replied Luna anxiously.

"ma'am, the Apploosa is gone…" I heard all the background noise on the Solar Eclipse's bridge die after I finished my sentence.

"Repeat your last commander," said Luna slowly.

"The USS Apploosa is gone admiral, it is currently split in half and her aft is on fire." I heard Luna's breathe hitch and she cleared her throat.

"Can you confirm your last?" she asked quietly.

"Sending you a picture now…" said Derpy quietly as she linked a picture from our targeting pod to the Eclipse. I heard absolute silence on the line when Luna received it. For a while it was as if the world stood still, waiting to see what Luna said. Luna took several breaths and sniffed slightly.

"Comms… set up a fleet wide transmission," said Luna quietly. A few seconds later the comm line popped and Luna cleared her throat. "Fleet, this is Admiral Luna. It has been confirmed that the USS Apploosa is the ship that exploded. No casualty estimates at this time. We are at threat level 1 people; all aircraft are to be in the air until further notice. All hands are to remain at their duty stations until further notice. If anyone leaves their duty station at any point they will be thrown in the brig. Blue Moon I want you on the surface ten minutes ago. We still don't know if this was an accident or a deliberate attack so until we have figured out…"

"You will all die…!" interrupted a low, hissing voice. "All will bow before the queen…"

"Who is this!?" bellowed Luna. "Identify yourself!"

"We have no identity, yet we are many. We take any form, but have no shape. We are the Changelings, and all shall bow to the queen," said the voice. "The world will tremble before her, and…" suddenly the line gave off static feedback then popped back to normal.

"Jeez that guy was annoying…" said Spike. "Communication security reset admiral."

"Were you able to track that signal?" asked Luna.

"Negative ma'am, it was being bounced around 40 different transmitters in six countries. No lock was made."

"Damnit… whoever these 'Changelings' are, they decided to piss off the wrong admiral," said Luna with a voice that practically dripped rage. "Fleet, prepare for war."

**Author's note: **first off i wanna thank Commander-vipe for making a lot of this story possible, and giving me an excellent OC. second, keep the families of the victims of the Newtown shooting in all your prayers, this is something that nobody should ever go through. thirdly, i am so SORRY this took so long, school kicked my ass with finals and i was just dealing with some emotional crap. anyways, Commander-vipe is writing an extension of this story focusing on Admiral Nekri and the Anglo-sudanese war the brits have going on in the story. its excellent. he started it on fanfiction but moved it to FIMfiction so you can follow it there. also, i wanted this to be a present for you guys but i didn't think i would have access to the internet on Christmas day so... MERRY FUCKIN' CHRISTMAS EVERYPONY! i hope all of you are having a great holiday season and i wish you all a happy new year. :)

Brohoof to all. /)

/)^3^(\


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS A CHANGLING!?" yelled a voice that shook the bridge of the _Cloudsdale_. "AND HOW THE HELL DID ONE OF THEM GET ON ONE OF MY SHIPS!?"

"They are an international terrorist organization that specializes in blending with their surroundings and assassinations. Up until recently they were just a sideline threat. Obviously that has changed."

"You bet your ass it has changed," growled Luna. "Now why on God's green earth was I not I briefed on them?"

"They had never made any threats towards the United States before. They had always focused on just watching," replied Admiral Nekri. "They haven't even assassinated anybody in over ten years."

"They had a presence in this part of the world and I was not briefed on them… the incompetence of…"

"Luna I am many things, but incompetent is not one of them," growled Nekri. "You know that. I am not in charge of intelligence resources nor am I able to control who gets what information. Take it up with MI6."

"I think I will. Luna out." She cut the feed of Nekri being projected above her table and looked over to the assembled crew in front of her; which consisted of Twilight, Spitfire, and myself. "Any suggestions?"

"We need to call the president, that is a given. Perhaps we can get more resources allocated to us to help hunt down these Changelings," said Twilight hopefully.

"I doubt that, this whole fleet was lucky to even get funded in the first place, sending us anymore ships would be denied on the spot," said Spitfire.

"I didn't mean ships captain, I meant specific resources. Special Forces, Changeling experts, classified intelligence. That kind of stuff."

"That's good thinking Twilight," said Luna as her mental cogs turned. "I'm going to call my sister and take it up with her." She proceeded to type up some commands into her smart table and another screen came up with the seal of the President. A few moments later the screen changed to show a woman sitting at the desk in the oval office.

"Admiral Luna, it's good to see you," she said in a tone that sounded like she was relieved.

"You too Madam President," replied Luna as a smile creeped onto her features. "We need to talk."

After about an hour of speaking with the President Twilight and I headed back up to the bridge of the Cloudsdale. Once on the bridge Twilight sat in her chair and sunk into it with a sigh.

"What's up Twi?" I asked. She sighed again.

"I'm in charge of the biggest aircraft carrier ever built and I can't do a damn thing but wait here with my thumb up my ass…" she said angrily. I chuckled a bit at her colorful language.

"Don't worry; I'm sure when they have something for you they won't hesitate to tell you." She looked at me and her angry look diminished slightly.

"Still… how could the Changelings just blow up one of our ships so easily? There was no warning whatsoever!"

"Keep it down Twilight, you don't want the crew to worry," I said trying to keep her voice down.

"Sorry…" she said. "It's just that the attack makes no sense; we haven't even tried to hunt them down. We're too busy looking for Al Qaeda and the Taliban."

"Whatever the reason is it's above our pay grade, we just have to focus on stopping them," I said firmly. She took a deep breath and looked back over towards the British port.

"I can't imagine what Luna must be feeling… this fleet was her idea. Putting it together took years, much less getting it approved by congress; the second it makes port in England and we lose a ship? We haven't lost that many sailors at the same time since freaking Pearl Harbor…" she said as she looked over the loss data on her CIT. "One hundred and twenty three dead with one hundred and twenty seven in the infirmary with burns and radiation poisoning. How the hell are we supposed to rally the troops with that kind of devastation?"

"She'll find a way, I know it," I said reassuringly. The sag in Twilight's shoulders lifted a bit and a resolute smirk came over her features.

"You're right! This is Admiral Luna we're talking about! She's the strongest woman I've ever met, and she's seen her fair share of hardship before," said Twilight as her voice gained some confidence. "We'll get through this."

After a bit more of talking I said my good byes and made my way over to Derpy's quarters. I hadn't seen her since we returned from our flight to confirm the destruction of the Apploosa and I was worried she would be an emotional wreck. After arriving in front of her door I knocked softly.

"Who's there…?" came Derpy's quiet reply.

"It's Ni, Derpy. May I come in?"

"Sure…" I slowly opened the door and stepped into the darkened room. I shut the door behind me and quickly noticed that there was no light at all.

"Where are you Derpy?" I asked.

"Over here," she said quietly. I turned towards the sound and Derpy turned on a lamp that was on the wall. My heart sank when I saw what kind of state she was in. Her hair was a mess and she hadn't even changed out of her flight suit from yesterday; but what really got me were her eyes. They were bloodshot and had deep bags underneath them signifying her lack of sleep and amount of crying.

"Hey Derpy, how're you doing?" I asked softly.

"How do you think I'm doing?" she growled as she sat up. "I didn't get any sleep last night and I just saw one of our ships half sunk in port. How the fuck do you think I'm doing?" I grimaced a bit and she noticed. "I'm sorry sir… it's just… this is my first tour, you know that. I've never had to deal with anything like this before…" she said as her voice went back down.

"Hey it's ok," I said as I moved closer to the side of her bed. "I would probably feel the same way if I were you." She wiped her nose on her sleeve.

"How do you get past stuff like this sir? How do you manage to sleep at night?" I sighed as old memories washed across my mind.

"You know how in training they tell you when you're in combat, to not think? Just to react?" She nodded her head. "It's kind of like that."

"How so?"

"Well… I've never had to explain this before so bear with me. When something like this happens to me, I tend to go into a state of shock; like I acknowledge whatever happened but don't think about it. I just react. Like when someone throws a punch, you block and counter; you don't think 'he's punching me, I should do something.'" Derpy wiped her eyes a bit and gestured for me to continue. "After I'm done dealing with the situation I usually go back over it and really think about it. Like why he punched me, how did I react, what else could I have done? That kind of thing."

"So are you doing that right now sir? Analyzing what happened?" she asked quietly. I shook my head and chuckled a little.

"Honestly I never really get to that part much, I always move on before I can think about what happened." She smiled slightly. "Plus we're still dealing with it so I don't know when I'll actually think about it."

"Thanks sir, that kind of made sense," she said as she got out of bed and stood next to me. "Permission to hug the commander?" she asked as she held out her arms.

"Granted," I smiled and we embraced. "For the record you don't have to ask Derpy, we're friends after all." She backed up from me and smiled widely.

"That's good to know sir."

"Its Ni on the ground Derpy, you know that."

"Ok Ni, if you say so." We stood there smiling at one another until Derpy cleared her throat and moved past me. "Thanks again for coming by Ni, but I really have to take a shower now cuz I reek." I laughed and took the hint.

"Ping me if you want to hang out later," I replied as I opened her door to exit.

"Copy that Ni."

It was now evening as Luna stood on the deck of the _Cloudsdale _waiting. She focused on controlling her breathing to help ease the pain in her chest. 'so many lost on my watch… so many letters to write… how can the fleet have confidence in me after this fiasco…?' she thought to herself as a gentle breeze wafted through her hair. A couple tears that had leaked out were quickly wiped away before her face contorted in anger. 'These changelings will rue the day they pissed me off.' A distant thrumming was heard and she turned her head to track the noise. As the noise got louder she could make out the running lights of two Blackhawk helicopters as they approached the super carrier. She didn't move from her spot as the choppers descended onto the helipads in front of her; kicking up wind and dust as they landed. She didn't so much as blink as the air whipped her hair into a slight frenzy and several men quickly exited the helicopters; eleven in total. They jogged out from underneath the rotor wash of the two Blackhawks and lined up in front of Luna. The helos lifted off as soon as they were cleared and distanced themselves from the carrier as quickly as they could. All the men stood smartly at attention except for one who was wearing civilian clothes and had a rather large bag with him. He walked right up to Luna and stuck his hand out to shake.

"Pleasure to meet you admiral, I wish it could have been under better circumstances," he said with an apologetic look on his face and a thick English accent coloring his voice. Luna shook his hand and nodded.

"Not more than I do," she replied solemnly. She turned her gaze towards the men. "Which one of you is in charge?"

"I am," replied a man who was wearing a black boonie hat and had a horseshoe mustache. He stepped forward and saluted Luna, who returned it.

"You are the captain correct?"

"Yes ma'am. Captain Price at your service." Luna smiled.

"I have a great deal of respect for you captain, many a story of your… 'adventures' have reached my ears," she said coolly. "The world owes you a great debt for taking down Zakhaev." He chuckled a bit.

"Well that's all fine an' dandy then, but I prefer them to leave me alone so I can do my job," he replied. "I've also heard a bit about you admiral. When the world hands you a load of bollocks you cram it back down the world's throat and make it give you what you want. I can respect that." Both leaders had wicked grins on their faces as their warrior pride made itself known.

"Good to know. This is your team?"

"Yes it is. As of 1900 hours, Task Force 141 is under your command; just tell us who you need dead."

"Good, get yourselves sorted. I have bunks ready for you and when you're ready the armory has some nice surprises for you," said Luna as she pulled out a CIT. "This will be yours for the duration of your stay, I'll use it to get in contact with you and you can use it to peruse any information you have clearance to." She handed it to Price and he nodded.

"Copy that. C'mon ladies, you heard the admiral," said Price as he motioned for his men to follow him. They moved towards the conning tower and made their way into the bowels of the ship. Luna turned towards the man still standing before her.

"Your name agent?" she asked.

"Agent Nathaniel Bartram ma'am, designated 009 at MI6," he replied quickly. "I am their expert on the Changelings and under your command while here." She nodded solemnly.

"I'll escort you to your quarters where we can talk privately. I want to know everything you know on these Changelings."

**Author's note: **hey everybody, sorry it took so long. laziness and school, you know how that goes. thought i'd bring in some call of duty awesomeness into this story and if you don't like it, well... you can suck my nuts. lol anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter and i look forward to reading/responding to your reviews.

Brohoof to all. /)


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